


The Party

by Starline148



Series: The Party [1]
Category: Inazuma Eleven, Inazuma Eleven GO
Genre: AoyamaxIchino, Christmas Eve, Crossdressing, First Part preparing for the party, FudouxKidou, Humour, IchinoxAoyama, KDFD, KidouxFudou, Kirinoxshindou, M/M, Main Couple Takuran, Party, Secon part the party, Secondary Couples KidouxFudou and IchinoxAoyama, Shindouxkirino, TakuRan, TatsuyaxMidorikawa, Tercary Couples TatsuyaxMidorikawa and KogurexHaruna, dance, tatsumido
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-01
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:15:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 25
Words: 40,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23431528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starline148/pseuds/Starline148
Summary: Shindou's Familly has been invited to a Couple's Party and Shindou Takuto decides to ask Kirino Ranmaru to go with him as his partner, just that Shindou asks Kirino to go like a girl. What could go bad?
Relationships: Kirino Ranmaru/Shindou Takuto
Series: The Party [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1685572
Comments: 5
Kudos: 41





	1. Would you come to the Party with me?

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, everyone! This Fan Fic is a bit long (30 chapters) but I hope you'll enjoy it! It's finished so I'll be posting every day a chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you'll like this, despite being only first chapter!

That day was proving especially hard for the boy. Yes, it wasn’t his best day. He sighed absentmindedly, he couldn’t sleep well, thinking about the conversation his father had with him the night before. He even fell over breakfast for lack of sleep, there were years since he wasn’t subjected to that shame. He sighed again ... He wasn’t able to attend classes that day either, how could he consider himself a worthy student if for something like that ...?

“Shindou!”

Several voices said his name at the same time; but it was late, a soccer ball was going directly to his head and the boy didn't even have time to say "oh". The ball hit him mercilessly in the face.

“Shindou! Oh my God. Shindou!”

A boy with pink hair gathered in two pigtails ran up to him and grabbed him on the back in time to prevent the newly struck man from falling from the dizziness that had just produced the impact. The pink haired boy had a worried expression, it was his pass after all that hit Shindou. He was the architect of that dishonor.

“Shindou, are you okay?”

“Eh” Shindou, who was extremely attractive and had wavy, ash-colored hair over his shoulders, blinked in a daze and directed his hazy gaze at that other boy, Kirino, though there were two of them at the moment.

Kirino sighed, Shindou's big red eyes chirped from the hit, and for a moment he feared he had made him stupid. In the end he was able to react and released himself from the pink-haired one, somewhat embarrassed.

“I'm fine, Kirino, thanks.”

"You are very distracted today, Shindou," said the boy who had just hit him, biting his lips remorsefully. “Something worries you.”

Shindou looked into the intense and brilliant blue eyes of his best friend, eyes in which he liked to get lost and in which he found comfort on countless occasions. He smiled, Kirino knew him very well. Yes, Kirino knew perfectly when something was around him. 

Suddenly a little light lit up on Shindou's head, he could ask him! Kirino was perfect for the occasion, yes, yes he was.

“To say the truth, yes. We can talk? After training, of course” he asked with great kindness, but Kirino looked at him suspiciously.

“Sure, if you don't kill yourself before ... Be careful while training.”

Shindou sighed again and little by little everyone, who had stopped to see what was happening, returned to their practice exercises. Those who took the longest to continue training were Hamano, Hayami and Kuruma who muttered something to each other.

Time passed inexorably and the high afternoon sun fell slowly, tearing apart a bloody sky that soon after was swallowed up by the black cloak of night. It was not that late, but in late autumn it was dark before over Inazuma.  
Kirino waited for Shindou in the locker room with some impatience, there was something that worried him, something that gave him a bad feeling. His intuition said that ... 

"I'm done, Kirino, thanks for waiting." Shindou smiled widely and Kirino was left hanging in his thoughts. “I'm sorry it took so long.”  
The pink haired boy shook his head, although it was true and that day Shindou would have taken more than double. At that time there were only Minaho and Manabe who were laughing very entertainingly about something they did not understand, one of them seemed to be showing the other a video. Outside the locker room were also the managers, who finished collecting some materials that they used in practice that afternoon with the help of a long-haired boy in a samurai ponytail, but who was currently arguing with the pinky haired manager because he had done something wrong.

"Goodbye, Shindou-sama ..." whispered Akane, a beautiful but very shy girl who lowered her gaze when the two boys passed by her; however, Shindou did not hear her. Kirino smiled at her in farewell. “Oh ... again …”

When they left the Football Club they noticed an intense cold and both teenagers tightened their scarves tightly so that not a bit of that icy air slipped through the gaps in their clothes.

“Then what worries you?” Kirino asked, approaching Shindou, both walking close together, almost glued together to face the wind that was hitting them.

Shindou took a breath, an air that chilled his lungs. 

“That Christmas Eve a friend of my parents ... a very rich and influential friend” Kirino interrupted with a cough that sounded like "like everyone" “celebrate a party at his mansion.”

The pink haired boy looked at him, surprised and smiling, there had to be something else! Because Shindou was already used to these things. He shook his head in agreement, allowing him to continue.

“And this time ... well ... It's a couples party …” Shindou blushed to the roots of his hair as Kirino opened his eyes and choked on his own saliva in a masterful sample of human evolution.

“And what's the problem, Shindou?”

“Well ... well, I have to bring a partner!”

Kirino's lips contracted in an "oh" that did not sound perplexed.

“A partner ... partner?

“Yes, of course ... what other type of partner could it be?”

They both fell silent, an awkward silence began to grow. Kirino scratched the back of his neck.

“Well, Shindou ... You are a very popular boy, surely you won't have any problem with…”

“But I don't know any girl! At least not the one I trust enough to… to… you know.”

“Be your partner …”

“Yes, my partner.”

“Your partner ...partner.”

“Yes, of course ... what other type of partner could it be?”

There was a strange silence between them again, Kirino felt a heavy sensation in the pit of his stomach.

“Don’t go. Say that ... say that ... that you have diarrhea or something. Or that …”

“In truth ... well …” interrupted Shindou blushed a lot and looked at Kirino “I thought that ... well, even though I don't know any girl so that ... well you know …”

“To be your partner?”

“Yes …”

“Your partner… partner?”

“Yes, of course, what other kind of ...?” Shindou interrupted, oh by God, they seemed stupid! He cleared his throat and continued. “I thought maybe you could come with me, Kirino. Would you come to the party with me?”

The boy stopped, his face as scarlet as his ears that froze in the outside. Kirino also stopped abruptly, surprised.

“Sure!”

Kirino smiled widely, his face slightly flushed. Going to a couples party with Shindou? Wow! It was certainly a gift from the Universe for his good deeds.

“Yes?” Shindou asked anxiously, his somewhat taut face so far took on a much more relaxed expression. “Great! We will have a great time, I am also sure that with a makeover nobody will know that you are a boy!”

Kirino was slow to assimilate that, when he did his head seemed to exploded, Shindou thought he could see the smoke coming out of it.

“What!!?”

“Well, with a change of …” 

“Would you like me to go dressed as ... a girl?”

Kirino made a disgusted face, what an outrage! And that he just thanked the Universe for that, he cursed everything, including the Universe, as he looked at his friend.

“It is a couples party, it would be very rare that …”

“Never! Not even dead!” Kirino refused completely out of his mind, waving his arms. “Tell someone else! Sakura or Konoha ... Or I know ... Akane! She is a real girl!”

Shindou opened his eyes, it was true, Akane was a girl ... His eyes flashed, she was a real girl!

"Uh ..." Kirino opened his mouth at Shindou's expression of resolution, perhaps he hoped that his friend would not give up on him so fast, but ... He shook his head.

"You are right, Akane is a girl," Shindou smiled. “I'll go ask her right now, I don't know why I hadn't thought about her myself” he laughed softly “Thanks, Kirino! You're the best!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you have liked it stay aware of new chapters! Comments and feedback are really appreciated! Thanks for reading!


	2. You owe me this!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, everyone. I hope all of you are fine. Here it's the second chapter, step by step the story will be building! I apologize for any posible mistake in the grammar or writting as English isn't my Mother Language.  
> I wish you'll enjoy the chapter!

Kirino watched Shindou walking away from him at a fast pace to reach the girl who surely would already finished his managerial duties. The pink-haired boy opened his mouth in disbelief in the same place where he was left. “Oh what a great idea, Ranmaru!” The boy snorted still not knowing what to do. “Yes, what a great idea of yours: "Shindou, tell Akane to go to the party"”... Shit! And why hadn't he already said, "Shindou ask her to marry you”? Kirino tugged on his pigtails and bit down furiously his plaid scarf with great frustration.

  
He took a breath and forced himself to calm down. There were times in life when what had to be done, had to be done. And that was one of those times, because... what if Shindou went with Akane and they fell in love and went to Las Vegas to get married? After all, Akane was already in love with him, and surely at the Party it would be easy for her to use her feminine charms to conquer the young man’s heart, innocent of all that. He couldn't allow Shindou to get married without finishing his studies! And much less in Las Vegas, what if they became addicted to that place? Who would take care of their children if Shindou became a gambler? Is it that nobody thought about children anymore? Of course not. 

  
Kirino convinced himself with that poor and regrettable excuse that he was doing it for Shindou and for his future, away from the hooks of gambling, and not because in fact his whole body was receiving a strong spark of jealousy when thinking that it would not be him. his "partner partner".  
Actually, Kirino had a big problem, well, maybe he had more than one, but that one was especially troublesome. And it was that from the first moment he saw Shindou he swear to himself that he would protect him until the end of time. And that often clouded his good judgment, perfect for all other occasions.

  
Kirino remembered the day he met Shindou as if it was the day before, although it was many, many days ago, many, many years ago...   
Kirino was playing with his toy dinosaurs in the sandbox of the playground when he heard someone crying inconsolably. Carried away by the intriguing and innocent curiosity of a three-year-old boy, he approached to discover a precious boy crying with tears, and two older children who messed with him because his "mud cakes" were rubbish. Those children had thrown his mud cakes and stomped not only his improvised restaurant but his dream of being the best Chef on Saturn. That made Kirino very angry, even though he didn't even know what a chef was, much less Saturn, but it sounded cool! He rushed at them making them flee crying after several bites and kicks. Then Kirino, with a gallant smile, that smile that his mother told him was a cutie, held out his hand to a Shindou with snots hanging from his nose, who accepted the gesture with a very sweet smile and then he thanked Kirino with his best mud cake, made exclusively for the pink-haired child.  
Kirino was sick for several days after that and he never tried again to eat anything which he didn’t know the ingredients. Shindou, for his part, left the kitchens and decided to dedicate himself to music, which did not involve so many risks. Since then the two boys became inseparable friends.

  
Shindou, meanwhile, caught up to Akane and was trying to talk to her casually before asking her the million dollar question, since he felt that simply asking her could be violent to both of them. However, it was taking him quite a bit, Akane driven by the shyness of talking to her beloved Shindou could barely utter a syllable and she spoke so soft that the boy had to make superhuman efforts to hear it. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea after all ... He breathed patiently and smiled at her kindly, making the girl even redder and more nervous ... Blessed Shindou.   
Suddenly something pounced on them, neither of them saw it coming, it was a blurred stain that made a strong tackle to the ash-haired boy, separating him from the girl who could only distinguish a pink mane. While that being of the underworld grabbed a surprised and still unable to react adolescent by the wrist and pulled him, taking him out of the reach of anyone else's sight.   
"Oh ... For once Shindou was talking to me..." Akane sighed sadly, even despite being unable to recognize the kidnapper due to speed, she was sure it was Kirino.

They finally stopped when the pink-haired boy believed that no one could disturb them anymore, he stopped abruptly and Shindou collided with him, huffing barely breathlessly and with a stabbing pain in his side due to flatus.  
"Ki ... Kirino ... What's wrong?" he moaned in a low voice as he breathed making a noise that the appellee believed unnecessary. "I was going to ask her... I was going to ask her to come with me and you have appeared like a lunatic and ..." Shindou tried to calm his breath, his heart was going a thousand percent faster and he could feel the veins in his body throbbing unpleasantly. Kirino turned around making sure no one was around.  
"I will do it!"  
"What? Behave like a lunatic?"  
Shindou, who was still bent over and was gradually returning to a more natural color, looked at his friend's sparkling light blue eyes, those eyes so wonderful that they looked like the clear sky of a spring morning.  
"What? No!" Kirino giggled, masking the knot in his stomach that had lodged inside him. "I'll go with you, to the party. As a partner partner…" Kirino murmured noticing suddenly how his cheeks were painfully lighted.  
Shindou raised his eyebrows in surprise at first, but then he smiled widely and his expression couldn't reflect more happiness.  
"Really? Even if you have to go like a… girl?"  
"Y-yes," Kirino stammered even redder if possible.  
"Thanks!" Shhindou gave a loud exclamation and in a burst of joy he gave Kirino a big hug and he was left with a stupid expression for that unexpected show of affection. "You will be my perfect partner."  
Kirino suddenly came back to reality, his lip trembled a little because… what did that mean !!!? He wasn't planning to go for free anyway, so he held up a finger.  
"But I have a condition." Kirino looked seriously at Shindou who swallow and nodded somewhat nervously.  
And it was not for less, during the last time Kirino had begun to ask him some very strange things in exchange for what he considered "favors". Like when he accompanied him to the dentist, which terrified Shindou, and asked him in exchange for the pencilcase that the boy used in his childhood and that he still kept with his utensils half nibbled, why would Kirino want that? Shindou never understood it.  
"What do you want in return, Kirino?"  
"Humm ... well I ... I want ... I want to go to Paris with you!" Kirino suddenly exclaimed, and his face took on the reddest shade he had ever acquired, it was a record!  
"Paris?" Shindou was surprised looking at his partner.  
"Yes ... to Paris ..." repeated the pink-haired boy. "I've always wanted to go with you ... I mean! I've always wanted to go and …"  
But the damage was already done, Shindou opened his mouth and decided to compete with Kirino's face, at those times it was not known which one was more blushed. In addition, Shindou's heart accelerated again, were they arrhythmias? Should he go to the doctor. What if he had a heart attack?  
"We will go to Paris" Shindou smiled, embarrassed, hardly thinking his words.  
Kirino looked excited, he always wanted to go there! But his family did not have the financial means to make such an expensive trip. His family was a normal and hard-working family, and some months it took a lot of effort to pay for Kirino's new shoes, since the boy constantly needed new ones from how much he wore them playing soccer.   
Also, with Shindou it would be different ... it would be much more beautiful, more romantic ... Kirino shook his head to zoom out an image of them holding hands and saying things in French, romantic things like ... "croissant".  
"We can also tell the rest of the team, maybe th…"  
"No!" Kirino growled, coming out of his fantasies as if a jug of cold water was thrown at him. "I want ... I want just the two of us to go" then he looked at him defiantly. "You owe me this!"  
Shindou laughed a little, why did that make him so nervous?   
"Okay, okay. But we are going to need an adult to accompany us, Kirino. Because you and I are still minors and we cannot travel alone."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. As I have said before any kind of feedback is super welcome! I love to read comments from people so don't by shy! Tomorrow another chapter. Stay fine!


	3. Dude, you really need help

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Here it's the new chapter. I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did writing it!

Kirino turned on the bed without being able to fall asleep, snorted and covered himself well with the blankets. The days began to pass too quickly and the date, inexorable, was getting closer and closer: second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour. He turned again and covered his head with the pillow.

"AAAAG!!"

He sighed, just the thought of going to Paris with Shindou gave him the courage to go through with that crazy idea. At the end of the day it was Paris, the City of Lights, Fashion and Love. Kirino blushed without anyone seeing him and after a while he turned again, ran out of air.

The next day they were going to buy the dress for the Party, Kirino put his hands to his face and stirred. Ah ... what a shame! What if they found out? Although there was some excitement about shopping with Shindou, too bad it couldn't be to buy a nice gentleman's outfit. Or better yet, a video game. The pink-haired boy loved going to the Inazuma Shopping Center with his friends: games, consoles, soccer balls, sneakers ... The burgers they ate in the meantime. He sighed again.

"For Shindou and his future" because him, idiot, had clung to that idea like a burning nail. 

He woke up the next morning with a slight feeling of nausea and tiredness, he didn't sleep well at all. He sat up, all disheveled and looked at his mobile. He had a message from Shindou. He pursed his lips in concern and opened it.

"Noooo! Oh no!"

The boy started screaming and his mother came up scared to see what happened. After dispatching her reassuring and reassuring her that the blue-eyed boy was fine, he froze. What had he done? What was the karma he was paying? Was he being punished for the time he took Shindou's favorite shirt? T-shirt he was wearing at that time, worn and very old, because the pink-haired boy used it to sleep.

He sat on the bed and reread the message, it was really very short. Touch and empathy brighted by their absence.

"Good morning, Kirino, I hope you have been able to rest better than in recent times. I am sorry to say that today I will not be able to go with you, a family commitment has arisen and we will be out of Inazuma all weekend. But do not worry! The reservation is still standing and everything is arranged so you can go without me, so no problem. You remember how to get there, right? I'll explain everything to you… ”

Kirino grunted, the rest of the message was information, the name of the store, address and the time he had to go. He was so angry that he didn't even soften his heart that he said goodbye with a very cute smiley. 

"Damn Shindou!"

Well, if Shindou had other commitments, he could also have them, for example ... for example ... Well, he could lie in bed without doing anything, yes, that was also urgent, an acute attack of laziness.

Kirino leaned back on the bed, how could he leave him? He had no idea of dresses! It was great that Shindou told him that he had carte blanche and that he could buy whatever he wanted that he would later pay for, but ... but ... If he barely knew how to distinguish the label from men's clothing, how could he do it from women's? How humiliating!

"Oh!"

Suddenly a light lit up in his head. He had no idea of fashion, but he knew someone who did. With a sparkle of hope in the depths of his blue eyes, decorated by dark circles, he looked for the name of one of his friends on his cell phone and gave him a call. A soft voice sounded on the other end of the line.

"I need your help!" Kirino shouted in such a desperate tone that the other person swallowed in concern, he was sure he had just accidentally got into a tricky business. "I have to buy a dress!"

A loud laugh sounded from the other end of the line. The conversation did not last much longer, Kirino was determined to get his help and so it was. They agreed to meet not long after at the entrance to the Shopping Center where the store was located. 

It was not the same Shopping Center that Kirino used to go with his friends, another environment was noticed, richer, more luxurious ... Kirino wished he did not have to step on that place in his life again, everyone looked at him as if he were a beggar , wrinkling his nose as if the boy gave off a foul smell. He had showered three times that same day!

"Dude, you really need help" a voice laughed.

Kirino's savior was a few feet away from him, but the boy was so focused on camouflaging himself against the wall that no one would notice him that he hadn't noticed. The pink haired boy turned and his blood ran cold, his savior was accompanied.

The boy Kirino begged for help was called Ichino, he had short yellowish gray hair and red locks fell over his ears on both sides of his head, locks that Kirino had always found similar to dog ears. His blue eyes flashed with laughter.

Beside him was a boy somewhat shorter and so, so thin that it seemed that if they touched him he would break into a thousand pieces. However, it was not like that, far from it, in fact that boy had a strength that seemed superhuman. He had charcoal black hair, short and glued to his head from above with a couple of strands that shot out to the sides at neck height, a lock of hair trying to hide his large forehead, his eyes were even darker and at that moment they looked at Kirino with amusement. He, Aoyama, was at Ichino's house when Kirino phoned and the boy signed up smelling a good drama. 

"What happens? I have monkeys in the face?" Kirino growled in greeting.

"I don't think the problem is in the face," the dark-haired boy smiled, shamelessly noticing Kirino's chest, where two small lumps were marked through one of his less manly T-shirts. Kirino covered with his arms in embarrassment.   
"Why don't you explain what this is all about?" Ichino laughed. "What is it that you have to buy a dress?"

"I promised Shindou that I would accompany him to a party, like his partner ..." Kirino sighed. "Female partner! And today I have to buy the dress and no one can know that I am a boy so Shindou thought that with these fillers no one would realize, that they would not suspect… but everyone looks at me and surely they know the truth and Shindou had commitments and he could not come and I am a disgrace and I want to die …"

Ichino and Aoyama exchanged sideways glances.

"But if you die, Shindou will have to find another partner," Ichino pointed out. "Who knows maybe he will tell Hayami."

"I think he would ask Tenma first," replied the brunet, "surely he would do anything for the Cap .. for Shindou" he corrected himself, remembering that Shindou was no longer the captain. "Tsurugi would surely love to see Tenma in a dress."

The two teenagers laughed and Kirino folded his arms in annoyance. He would love to make fun of Tenma as the most, but it was he who was going to be dressed as a woman!

"Ichino! Aoyama! If you really want to help me, shut your mouth!"

"Easy, easy, Kirino, man" Ichino said, resting his hand on the shoulder of the pink-haired boy in a calming way.

"Rather, calm down, Kirino, girl" Aoyama was hopping, patting him on the back. "We have to tell you like that if we want nobody to suspect, right?"

The brunet had tears in his eyes from laughter, and the other boy behind Kirino's back also laughed more quietly.

"Gr…."

"Hey ... We'll be your bodyguards," Ichino smiled and winked at Aoyama to go along with it. They rarely had the opportunity to mess with Kirino, they were not going to waste it.

"No one will touch your hair without our consent, sweetheart" Aoyama said sensually resting a hand on the wall next to Kirino who glared at him. Ichino had to put his fist in his mouth to stop laughing.

"I'm going to kill you!"

But they knew the pink haired boy would not keep his word. In fact, somehow, it relaxed him that they were joking. It made him think that the matter was not as serious as he dramatized in his night hours. And after a while Kirino allowed himself a smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! If you have liked it any kind of feedback is welcome!   
> Tomorrow next chapter.


	4. Now you just have to choose the one you like best

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Next chapter is here. I hope you'll like it! I enjoyed a lot writing this one!

The three teenagers headed towards the store that Shindou told Kirino. It was a large establishment, very well lit and spacious. The three boys stared at the window full of mannequins, in dresses so beautiful and luxurious that it seemed unbelievable that they were exposed for free instead of charging for looking at them.   
Ichino whistled and looked inside.

“What a place, huh?”

The puzzled faces of all three were reflected in the floor tiles. Kirino recovered as best he could and motioned for them to enter. As they did so they felt they were entering another dimension. There were three saleswomen, two of them were already attending to someone and they didn’t pay much attention to them, Kirino preferred it that way. The third saleswoman instead approached with a business smile.   
“How can I help you?”   
Kirino opened his mouth and although he stuck with his own words in the end he was able to explain himself.

"Of course, Shindou Takuto made the reservation personally." The woman smiled, Shindou Familly were great clients of the establishment. “Please come with me.”   
She took them to a table with a beautiful decoration, which Kirino was sure was worth more than his entire house, and took out a large catalog of dresses, causing the pink-haired boy to be frightened.

“Let's find you the perfect dress, honey.”   
Ichino smiled interestedly, the reason Kirino decided to ask for his help was because the boy's mother was a designer and he wasn’t as disinterested in the subject as he often told his friends. Aoyama raised his eyebrows in amazement that there could be such a variety of dresses, although when he saw the price on one of them his stupefaction turned to deathly pale. Who was capable of paying so much for a simple dress? He, at least, had enough with a simple T-shirt and some shorts.   
  


The clerk began to speak to Kirino, who didn’t understand half of what she was saying, and finally it was Ichino who took command. The saleswoman didn't bother at all, especially since that boy made her job so much easier. For a moment she had feared having to deal with Kirino, who looked like those "difficult clients". 

"Look, Kirino." Ichino pointed to three models he had chosen after a deep look at the catalog. “I think this type of dress will fit you especially well, they are gathered at the top and will not mark your chest too much, and being loose in this type of bell shape will give you a very nice volume at the hip.”

"Ah ..." Kirino scratched his head in a very unfeminine way that didn’t go unnoticed. Aoyama stomped on him to react. "Eh ... sure, sure, if you say so ..."   
Ichino huffed a little and turned to the clerk.   
“Could she try these models?”   
She nodded and went to look for them, momentarily leaving the boys alone.

"Do yourself a favor, Kirino, behave" the light-haired boy scolded him.

“How easy it is to say that when it is not you who …”

But Kirino had to keep quiet because the clerk returned with some bags where the dresses were carefully kept and made a sign for him to follow her.   
  


They went to the fitting rooms, inside one of them the woman hanged the clothes and made Kirino pass. Ichino went to enter as well but Aoyama grabbed him by the hand.

“What are you going, Ichino, she is a "girl"!”   
The boy opened his mouth, he almost forgot that little detail. He sighed a little and stood with the black haired boy in the entrance of the fitting room. They heard the clerk offer her help to Kirino but Kirino refused to let her put the dress on. Even though he padded the top, he was still wearing male underpants!

Kirino was left alone in the fitting room, which was larger than his own room. And also much cleaner. He sighed in dismay and took off his clothes leaving his figure almost naked, he looked in the mirror and touched the fillers, they were uncomfortable, how could the girls live with those? He snorted and picked up one of the dresses, which he put on as best he could. How complicated it was!   
  


As he exited the fitting room, he stumbled at the mocking gaze of his two friends. The clerk took a breath, she told her not to leave when she finished, that she was going in to touch up the dress. She brought him back in and took some adjustments with needles here and needles there. Ichino and Aoyama who had shamelessly entered nodded in approval.

"You look very pretty in that dress, Kirino," Ichino praised. Kirino rolled his eyes.

“Sure”   
“Your friend is right, this dress fits you wonderfully, surely no one will be able to take their eyes off you.”

Kirino snorted and said something that sounded "great, just what I need." Ichino and Aoyama caught his eye in alarm, but the saleswoman had enough practice in her job to know that there was no need to go into these conflicting topics.    
Kirino tried the other two models, one more beautiful than the other. When he finished, he quickly put on his clothes and left.   
"Now you just have to choose the one you like best" Ichino murmured in his ear, Kirino opened his eyes, which one did he like the most?

"I think the third is the one that fit you the best," said the dark-haired boy, looking at the dresses with appraising eyes.

"I think the same" said Ichino, turning to the pink-haired one who simply did not see the difference between them.

“Ok, the third, I don't care.”

The saleswoman smiled gratefully, that was very easy!

“You have to try it again so I can take the final arrangement, dear.”

“What?”   
So a stressed Kirino put the dress back on and held on as he could while the clerk placed the needles and made the necessary marks to fix the dress and customize it to the boy's size. When she finished Kirino was sweating like a chicken.

"It only remains to choose shoes and accessories" Ichino recalled.

The pink haired boy looked at him, his face showed real terror, was that torture not over yet? But Ichino was concerned. Although it was true that Kirino's body could pass through a girl’s with a certain camouflage skill in the outfit, the pink-haired boy had bigger feet than any girl.

  
As he had anticipated, when choosing shoes they found the complication of the number . Fortunately they hadn’t yet reached the end of their development, but even so very few shoes had the number of the footballer. In the end Kirino allowed himself to be guided by comfort over the rest and chose the sandals that hurt the least when trying them on. 

Once everything was chosen they made the reservation of the clothings, they told him that when the dress was ready they would call him to try it on again and there he could take everything. 

When they finally left the establishment Kirino was on the verge of a nervous attack. He had a slight tic in one eye and his body hurt. The other two teenagers looked at each other, this had only just begun for the boy.

  
The pink-haired went straight to the services with certain bad humor, there he took off the filling and howled with happiness. Free! Upon leaving he found his two friends whispering and frowning.   
“What happens?”

The two boys jumped up and shook their heads. Because they were sure that if they told Kirino what they were talking about, he would hit them. Because they were exchanging their opinions on how the pink haired boy shaved his legs for the occasion. To divert attention from that Ichino asked:

"Do you want to go eat somewhere?"   
And as he said it, he took out a couple of pamphlets from fast food restaurants that he always carried with him because of the discounts.

"Sounds good to me" Aoyama accepted more than delighted.

"Me too," Kirino smiled "but away from here, please."

Ichino and Aoyama smiled from ear to ear, they wouldn’t be able to do something like that, go to a party as girls? No way about it! 

The three teenagers left the place and went to their Shopping Center, yes, that was much better. All three felt very comfortable in that place. They went up to the top floor, where there was a gallery with tables surrounded by different fast food stands. They chose a table somewhat set apart and each went to order the food where they wanted most. When everyone returned with their food, they barely fit on the table.

"If you eat all this, your dress won't fit, Kirino" Aoyama scoffed, looking at all the things that Kirino bought, who was relieving his stress by eating: one hamburger, two portions of fried potatoes, a giant carbonated drink, one taco, one plate full of nuggets and an extra large smoothie.    
The pink-haired boy raised an eyebrow and looked at the dark-haired boy’s food, which was no small feat.

“Where do you put all that food? If you are skeletal!”

"Well, I assure you he always eats like that" snorted Ichino, Aoyama looted his fridge on more than one occasion.

  
They ate for a few moments to quench their initial hunger in silence, then began to speak.   
"You look so pretty in the dress, Kirino" Ichino said suddenly. “Shindou will surely fall in love with you.”

Kirino who was drinking at that time choked, turned red and blue at the same time and released all the liquid as if he were a sprinkler, before the disgusted cries of the other two, who had enough reflexes to move their food away.

“How disgusting you are, Kirino, I take back what I just said.”

“Ew! Kirino's slime.”

But Kirino couldn't react until a little later, because at that moment he coughed as if his life depended on it.

“What did you say!? We are both boys!”

"Yes, sure, as if it mattered" Ichino shrugged as Kirino blushed with a cold sweat.

"I wonder how he convinced you to go with him" Aoyama murmured, squinting and looking at his partner, thinking of the possibilities.

"Easy" Ichino replied with a wave of his hand. “Kirino would go to hell himself in order to prevent a real girl from approaching Shindou. Do you not remember that girl from the kindergarten who asked Shindou for the paintings?”

Aoyama laughed and nodded.

“How could I forget? Kirino chased her with a beetle all morning. Yelling at her like a lunatic”

The pink haired boy groaned, shoving a handful of potato chips into his mouth.

The conversation continued to bring out the shame and dirty rags of the team defender who was becoming more red.

“Everything I have done is for Shindou and his well-being!”

“Sure, of course …”

“If you say so …”

“It's true! If Shindou has a girlfriend he would not have time to study, if he does not study he will not be able to enter the prestigious University that he dreams of since he was little, if he does not enter that University he will not be able to access the job he wants, his parents will kick him out because he dishonored his family and he will have to live renting a small house in a poor and dirty neighborhood, living with jobs that will not allow him to work as a person until one day he will be fired and he won’t be able to continue paying the rent and he will have to survive among the garbage cans!”

Ichino and Aoyama rolled their eyes with exasperation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. Hope you liked it! Every day I'll submit a chapter of this story! If you like my work you can support with Kudos and Comments! (I love reading comments).


	5. You seem to have a fever

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, everyone! Today chapter 5 of the story.  
> I really like this chapter as it opens a 3 chapters mini arc with Shindou and Kirino :D (I find this mini arc really sweet).

That day dawned really cold, with a sky covered in leaden clouds. They seemed to herald a storm, perhaps even snow.

  
That day was the last day of school for the Inazuma boys before their winter break began. Kirino noted his mood very much in keeping with the day, while trying unsuccessfully to pay attention to his teacher's words. The final minutes of that class were lazily crawling across the clock, discouraged, as if they didn't want to move forward and decided to stop in that classroom.

Although maybe it was better that way, yes. Because in the next class they would be examined for the last time that semester, what a way to go on vacation! And then ... Kirino knew that after that he would be disgraced for the rest of his life, perhaps he would have to do the harakiri to restore his family's pride. Of course his family didn't have much to protect, the only one who brought some fame was the pink-haired boy through his soccer games in recent years. Actually, the boy was quite popular with teenagers and had even met an outrageous fan at his doorstep. 

He sighed heavily and his classmates turned to look at him in whispers, the teacher pulled him out of his reverie punishing him with more homework for the holidays.

"Great ..." the pink-haired growled to himself, not daring to bother the professor any more.

When the last bell at the end of classes finally rang, Kirino could hardly stretch out in his chair, his whole body ached and he didn’t remember having ever done an exam as horrible as the one he just presented. He was afraid of what might happen, but he couldn't concentrate! His head was burning and the thoughts seemed to have solidified in his mind.

“Gonna going to train, Kirino?” Ichino asked, coming much happier with his exam than the pink-haired one, although when he saw him he tilted his head in concern. Kirino was trying to put the books in his bag, but it was closed and he didn't notice.

“Are you okay, Kirino?” Aoyama got close too, and was looking worriedly at his friend whose face was getting redder and redder, and that time it wasn't because of someone with big red eyes.

Kirino nodded, although he really wasn't feeling well. At the other corner of the class Shindou was talking with some girls who gave him their best wishes for those festivities, the boy turned and met the gaze of the blue eyes of his fellow defense. He felt as if he was punched in the gut. Shindou was quite worried about Kirino, with each passing day he had a worse face, with dark circles that grew by leaps and bounds. That day the boy looked like he belonged at a Tim Burton movie. 

A girl cleared her throat impatiently, trying to get the attention of Shindou again, who kindly answered her before saying goodbye to them. Although he wished that Kirino's discomfort was not due to the upcoming date of the Party, he knew inside that it was for that reason. Deep down it was normal, Kirino had to go with Shindou dressed as a girl before the most important people in the Country.    
They had said very little since the day Kirino agreed to go with him, although if he remembered it clearly it really was since Kirino was forced to go alone to buy the clothes. Somehow the pink-haired boy still couldn’t forgive his friend for abandoned him at such an important moment, and every time Shindou approached him, he became busy and managed to disappear with Ichino and Aoyama. Shindou snorted, well, not for nothing Kirino's star technique was "The Mist", when he wanted he was quite elusive.

Anyway... Ichino and Aoyama grew close to Kirino a lot, in fact they were there with him right then; shouldn't he, Shindou, be by his side? Also, the two boys looked pretty rude when they thought he didn't look. Once he caught Ichino glaring at him like a psychopath and made his hair stand on end, what’s come over him?

"You seem to have a fever, Kirino" Ichino's voice was like a blow to Shindou.    
The light-haired boy touched his forehead and the boy was really on fire.

“How many days have you been without sleep?” Ichino asked softly again.

"Two weeks," growled Kirino, doing his best to focus his attention on the desk where he was holding on and which was unfolding in a very unpleasant way.

“Kirino!” Aoyama was scared “How ... how? You're going to get really sick if you don't take care of yourself!”

“Are you sick?” Shindou approached them and was looking with his heart in a fist at his best friend, who in those moments what he needed the least was the overstimulation of Shindou presence.

Hayami, Hamano and Kurama who didn’t yet leave stopped talking to each other when they heard their friends and turned to watch them with concern. Hamano who was sitting at the desk stopped laughing. They, too, noticed how strange Kirino was, and tried to cheer him up in their own way. Hamano invited him to fish one afternoon with Hayami and himself, and the pink haired boy even agreed. Kurama for his part patted him on the back every time he saw him.

Kirino refused Shindou's gaze, while Ichino and Aoyama turned to him with a face that clearly said "it's your fault”.

Ichino certainly didn't understand why, but since he went with Kirino to buy the dress he could barely hold Shindou. He seemed so rogue in his eyes! Even if he was very peaceful and good people, or at least he wanted to believe about himself. He also noticed that Aoyama seemed to feel the same, or even more extreme. Every time Shindou appeared, Aoyama suffered from sudden deafness and did not respond to anything he said. Oh... How much he wanted the dark-haired boy to punch his face. How could he not realize what Kirino was suffering because of him? Every day he seemed sicker and Shindou didn’t bothered to attend to him as he should have.

  
Also… Ichino and Aoyama looked askance at Kirino, the boy was coughing in a very worrying way during the last training sessions, he suffered from dizziness constantly and once they followed him in secret they heard him vomit. 

Ichino knew that not everything was Shindou's fault, after all Kirino decided to get into that mess by agreeing to go to the Party and had to bear the consequences. Also Shindou was not to blame for Kirino being a stupid neurotic, but for ignoring him like that!

Because it happened that Kirino couldn’t help getting nervous when he had plans with Shindou. Years ago, when he turned 7, Shindou invited all his friends to the Inazuma Amusement Park. Kirino became so stressed from his own emotion that he got ill and could not attend with the others, that destroyed him and made him very sad, he barely ate the days after that and was on the limit of having to be hospitalized. Another year, during the summer, Kirino invited Shindou to go to the beach with his family for a few days. The boy with celestial eyes confessed to Ichino that he stuck every vacation vomiting from his nerves: on the beach, at the beach bar, in the inflatable animal shop, in arcades, in the ice cream shop… The place didn't matter, every time Shindou approached him, Kirino felt the urge to empty his stomach.

Although while growing he managed to stop vomiting, in most cases, and reduce his nervousness quite a bit, Kirino continued to somatize that emotion badly carried through insomnia. The problem was that on that occasion, it was a plan with a long, long time in advance. And with the cold, not sleeping well was dangerous, since lowering the defenses was much more likely to catch any type of disease.

A shout from the once captain of the Raimon brought Ichino back to reality. He watched in slow motion as Kirino closed her eyes and collapsed before them, his pigtails seemed to be rippled by a nonexistent wind. He vanished and fell to one side.

The only one to react in time was Aoyama, who launched himself to catch Kirino so that he didn’t hit the table or the floor. 

The other three friends also jumped. Actually it was Hamano and Kurama who launched to go for Kirino, but they were very far away and they accomplish nothing. Hayami only screamed and covered his eyes.

Luckily for everyone, the dark haired boy achieved his purpose and raised Kirino as if he was a princess. The knocked body of the pink-haired boy burned with fever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wish you enjoyed the chapter! Tomorrow the next one.   
> If you liked my work don't forget to give any kind of support as it makes me really happy! Thanks for reading


	6. I’m not moving from your side

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, everyone. I hope you're doing great!! Here it's chapter 6, the second of the mini arc with Kirino and Shindou :D I like this one a lot, but I like next even more.

Kirino passed out in front of Shindou, without him being able to do anything other than shout his name. He couldn’t react, couldn’t move and avoid his fall. If it wasn’t for Aoyama, who had the reflexes and the strength to take the pink-haired boy in his arms, he could have opened his head when hitting the table... Shindou's eyes formed pearly tears as a result of the scare he just lived. Why wasn’t he able to react earlier? He was greatly frustrated.

He thanked with all his being that incredible strength that Aoyama possessed, he didn’t understand where it came from because he was so thin... Shindou smiled at the dark-haired boy for saving Kirino, but he didn’t return the smile, even more, he didn’t even look at him at all. Rather, he looked and talked to Ichino, clearly simulating that Shindou wasn’t there. Shindou was a bit offended, but he understood that it was a delicate moment to say anything about it.

“Is Kirino okay?” Hamano asked, reaching out and touching Ichino's shoulder. Behind them Kurama and Hayami also approached.

"Yes, but we should take Kirino to the infirmary" Ichino commented, reaching out for Aoyama to pass him to the pink haired boy.

Shindou stood in front of them, very serious, they would have no choice but to look at him.

“I take Kirino” he wasn't going to allow no for an answer, not that time. He couldn't afford it, that tightness in his chest ... that feeling of guilt ...

Ichino and Aoyama were silent for a moment, perhaps thinking what they should do, continue ignoring him? The other three looked at Shindou without much understanding of what the situation was about, but Hayami whispered to Hamano.

“That would be super romantic, don't you think?”

Kurama made a disgusted face.

"The football team needs you to coordinate the training, Shindou" Aoyama said finally with some disdain, "While we are not key players after all.”

Shindou took a breath, no, he wasn't going to allow it. It might be true and the football team depended a lot on him, but Kirino ... No. He was not going to leave him.   
  


"Put me down" a voice suddenly murmured making the six of them look at him immediately. Kirino twisted in Aoyama's arms to let go, that was humiliating. 

He regained consciousness in the boy's arms and a wave of shame washed over him. He staggered to his feet, under the tense observation of the others, who waited for the slightest sign to grab him again.

"Let's train," said the boy, his face still red from the fever. 

“What do you say!” Ichino scolded him.

“You are going to your house right now!” Hamano exclaimed.

"Kirino, don't do anything crazy," Kurama muttered, folding his arms.

“You can't train like this!” Hayami yelled, making Kirino close his eyes because he had done it too close to his ear.

"You should rest, Kirino" Aoyama supported with a soft smile.

“It's dangerous that you train like that, Kirino.”

The pink-haired boy leaned on Ichino's shoulder to catch his breath and smiled sadly at everyone but the wavy-haired boy. Shindou furrowed his eyebrows, annoyed by that. Could it be that he became invisible?

"We can escort you home if you want, Kirino" Aoyama offered, fearful that the boy would vanish again.

Kirino widened his smile.

“I'm fine, seriously. I can go to training.”

“No.”

On that occasion, he went to Shindou, who was looked at, unable to continue doing that he did not exist after such a sharp and serious denial. Neither Ichino nor Aoyama saw Shindou so serious before, except in matches. The other three boys sighed in the background.

"I'll walk you home, Kirino" Shindou said firmly, taking Kirino's bag and hanging it next to his own, then grabbed Kirino by the wrist, which was burning as hot as his face.

"B-but ..." Kirino protested.   
  


Apoyama also opened his mouth to say something, surely against the ashen-haired boy, but Ichino tapped him on the shoulder and silently shook his head.

"We will inform the team that it will take you a while to come to train" Ichino said, with a bit of a better humor seeing that Shindou reacted positively to Kirino.

And he gave his partner a blow and a nod to the other three to leave the room with him. They nodded and went to collect their things.

"Ichino" Shindou called to his surprise. “I am not going to training today.”

Ichino smiled and grabbed Aoyama's hand to run towards the Football Club, as he said goodbye.

“Kirino recover or you won't be able to dance!”

Aoyama who blushed from Ichino taking him by the hand turned one last time to Shindou and brought his index and middle fingers to his eyes and then pointed them towards Shindou's, thus threatening to watch over him.

Kirino breathed heavily and stumbled again, Shindou swallowed hard. And to the surprise of the pink haired boy and those who were still in the class, he carried him in his arms, in the same way that Aoyama did, bridal style.

“What ... what are you doing, Shindou! Put me down! Put me down!”

But although Kirino protested and kicked, with little strength in reality, Shindou did not put him down and they headed towards the exit of the High School.

Hayami stood there with a rapt expression and repeated how romantic that seemed to him. Hamano without understanding very well and believing that Hayami wanted to be carried like that, he shrugged and took the boy in the same way while Kurama opened his mouth, it seemed that he gave him an attack.

During Shindou's journey carrying Kirino, some of his friends who saw them laughed and whistled at them, like a spiky white-haired boy who played basketball with other boys despite belonging to the football team.

“Hey, lovebirds! Get married at once!”

Shindou ignored either Ibuki, despite the fact that his ears turned red, or Kariya who saw them from afar and began to laugh out loud calling Kirino "little princess" at Hikaru's expression of shame, Tenma and Shinsuke laughed a bit either. Kirino covered his face with his hands and didn't think he could bear any more embarrassment.

Despite going into Shindou's arms, or perhaps because of that, Kirino found his way very long and desperate. At first the cold of winter relieved him of some of the burning that hurt inside him, but he was becoming tempered and began to tremble more and more violently; feeling the pangs of cold on the outside and the burning of fever inside. Shindou pressed him closer to his body, worried, and a little tired of carrying the defense all that way. Although Shindou had been greatly strengthened in recent years, he was still considerable heavy on a considerable journey. Kirino sighed, he left his head resting on the gap between the neck and shoulder of his makeshift prince charming, but it hurt so much to think that he kept silent.

When they finally arrived to the boy's house, he passed the keys to Shindou who refused to release him and somehow managed to open the door despite carrying a person on his arms.

Shindou carefully took off his shoes at the entrance, while Kirino threw the sneakers without worrying where they landed, he had enough staying awake. 

No one was there at the time, but Shindou who knew that house as well as his own didn’t worry about it. He led Kirino directly to his room and gently laid him on the bed. He smiled at him and brushed a lock of hair from his face.

"I'll go for medicine so you can take it" Kirino protested, hating the taste of medicine to lower the fever. “You should change your clothes, if you feel weak wait for me and I will help you in a moment.”

Shindou left the room quite quietly, Kirino stayed there on the bed, tried to get up to change but had no strength, so when the other returned he was found just as he had left, except that he had lowered his pants.

“...”

For some reason that disturbed Shindou enough, his first impulse was to approach without delicacy and finish removing his pants, but he stopped. He was sick!

“Kirino …”

The pink-haired turned to him, stood up with his help and took the water with the medication. Then Shindou, with a self-control he didn't think he was capable of, helped him undress and put on his pajamas. After that Kirino got into the cape and groaned in pain and exhaustion.

“You want something, Kirino?” Shindou asked still concerned. “Do you want me to call your parents? Or to a doctor?”

Kirino shook heis head.

"Don't worry, Shindou." The boy closed his eyes and smiled. “It's just a little fever ... Nothing a little sleep doesn't fix.”

"Go to sleep then" Shindou agreed, caressing his forehead and placing his own wet handkerchief to cool the heat while the medicine took effect.

"Thanks, Shindou" he sighed. “You can go... if you leave now you will still arrive in time to …”

"Don’t say it" Shindou shook his wavy hair. “I'm not moving from your side.”

The pink haired boy felt a rush of very warm feeling and reached his hand out for Shindou, who took it in his. 

His cheeks turned red at the thought that it was always Kirino who took care of him, and he especially remembered that occasion, a couple of years ago, when they met Tenma, Shinsuke and Tsurugi and he ended up in the infirmary. So much happened since that, since they started the football revolution. They knew so many friends, they saved the World so many times... Shindou snorted. They also suffered. When they separated when the pink-haired boy was not chosen to represent Japan a little more than a year ago, he thought that he could not get ahead. Shindou shook his head- The following year theywent together and won! Of course, on that occasion they didn’t need to leave Earth, which he at least appreciated. The thing was, they were together again, and he wasn't going to leave again! Except maybe to go to the bathroom. 

For a time they remained like this, suddenly Kirino opened his eyes and looked at Shindou somewhat scared. 

“Shindou ... today ... today my parents will not come ... I”

He forgot that his parents went on a business trip. They would arrive the next day. But the boy did not understand what he meant by that and just raised his eyebrows.

“You're going to ... you're going to be alone ... No ... you don't need to ... stay …”

Shindou stopped him.

"Have you forgotten all the days you spent with me when I was the one who was in bed?" Kirino shook his head with effort. “Perfect, because neither do I. I will stay with you until you recover.”

Kirino sighed, that could be a long time depending on how being well was understood. Anyway... he smiled thinking about what Shindou just said. It was true that he was always the one who accompanied him, like that time when he was hospitalized at the age of 9 due to digestive problems, or when Shindou broke his leg in the match against the Arakumo Academy. Kirino stayed with him as long as he was allowed and helped him with his homework. And of course he would do it again if necessary!

The dark-haired boy brushed back a lock of hair; yes, Kirino was always by his side when he needed it, without asking. Like that time in kindergarten when some abusive children wanted to hit him because he colored the pictures better than they did. That day Kirino appeared out of nowhere, shrouded in a mysterious mist, and engulfed them in their darkness. When they came out, small hands marked on their cheeks, they were screaming about a strange pink-haired demon. They were never the same again. Even to that day they still had nightmares with that moment. 

Shindou smiled, he could count on Kirino for everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked this chapter! If you want to support my work with kudos or coments, it'll be great. See you soon!


	7. It was a nightmare

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Submitting another chapter. This one is one of my favourites, and the end of the mini arc. There're a few chapters more until the Party.
> 
> I hope you'll like it!

A strong wind began to move outside, violently hitting the windows of the house with a chilling noise; mmediately the sound of thick raindrops falling on the glass joined the wailing cry of the wind. In the distance a thunderclap was heard and Shindou opened his eyes scared and with his heart at a thousand an hour.

What day was it? Where was ihe? He fall asleep in a chair and his whole body ached, what was he doing in the dark in...? A lightning momentarily lit the room, followed by another even louder thunderclap. Shindou sighed and ruffled his hair, he misplaced a moment but he already remembered everything.

He was taking care of Kirino, whom had to go home after school due to a sudden fever. Shindou yawned and stretched, looking at the clock. It was not even nine at night, but the darkness was total outside, excluding lightning. 

He didn’t know when he fall asleep. He got up to go to the bathroom, he felt his legs numb and walking a little did him a lot of good, when he returned to the room he kept thinking. Kirino should eat something, although he was sleeping peacefully at the time. A smile appeared on the boy's face and he moved closer to take a look at him. Kirino did not know that Shindou liked to watch him asleep, his face was so sweet and transmitted so much peace ... But of course he could not tell him, or he would think that he was a psychopath or a pervert. He didn't like any of those options at all.

He yawned again and went to the kitchen of the house to prepare something simple for his friend. He never tried to cook for real, not since he was three years old; but it couldn't be that difficult, could it? After all, almost everyone knew how to cook. 

In the kitchen he looked at what ingredients the Kirino Familly had and snorted not knowing what to do with them. What if he ordered some food? It would be simpler, of course the storm would possibly make the order arrive very late if the request was accepted ... And he was hungry.

"You can, Takuto," he said motivating himself. “If you could win the Ixar Fleet and save the World, you can make a rice omelette.”

But Shindou had a hard time meeting his expectations; after several attempts that went one after another to the trash, he decided to make some instant noodles that he found at the bottom of a cupboard, with his soul dejected by defeat. 

"Kitchen 1, Takuto 0" he sighed sadly.

At least the noodles were easy, he just had to boil the water and pour them inside. He served them in two bowls, thinking that the hot soup would help his dear friend recover. When he had a fever they would often give him soups.

He was finishing placing everything on a tray when he heard a cry coming from above, from Kirino's room. A shattered glass fell out of his fright, but he did not bother to pick it up, but ran towards the boy's room, heart pounding.

Kirino was sleeping peacefully, the medicine took effect quickly at the beginning and the fever dropped considerably, but suddenly his calm dreams changed, at the same time that he had another fever spike. 

He went from finding himself dreaming of soft and tender things to materialize alone in a desert wilderness that he hardly recognized as the football field of the Inazuma riverside. Thunder rumbled as the sky turned black, there was a strange tension in the air and the boy felt fear. He wanted to run away, but his legs were too heavy and he could barely move. Around him shadows began to swirl, they did not materialize at all but he knew that they were watching him, that they were judging him. Suddenly he realized that he was wearing the party dress instead of his football clothes. 

In front of him, out of the darkness Shindou appeared, Kirino smiled at him thinking that everything was going to be better, but the boy looked at him in disgust, with an expression of hatred that broke Kirino's heart in a thousand pieces.

“You are a shame, Kirino.”

“Shin ... Shindou !?”

A cold wind stirred their hair and clothing. Kirino pursed his lips, why?, what was happening?.

“You do not have my same level, you could never reach me in football, you are only a burden to me.”

The boy's blue eyes widened scared and hurt.

“Shindou …”

Didn't he know how to say anything else? Kirino looked threateningly at him as he growled at himself, clasped his hands tightly; he was going to give him a good punch, that's what he was going to do. That they weren't on the same level? Now he was going to find out! However, his body did not move, from the ground and entangling himself in his legs, blackish arms began to grow, grasping him while ragged voices said his name. He was terrified. Shindou turned, turning her back on him.

“You're not even a real girl, you disgust me.”

Tears formed in the eyes of the blue-eyed boy, and he stretched out a hand trying to wriggle out of those arms that had already gone up to his torso and were pushing him towards the ground, calling him, trying to drag him along with them. He fell flat on his face, with a spike of pain, and felt himself drown.

"Don't leave me" the boy asked, although the other figure moved away and became less visible as it mixed with the darkness of the environment “Shindou!”

Shindou just entered the room with a pounding heart, had run up the stairs three by three when hearing it from the kitchen. He found Kirino with tears in his eyes and an outstretched arm, just then he called out his name again. Frightened, he approached him and took his hand.

“I'm here, Kirino, I'm here.”

The velvety voice of the red-eyed boy overlapped with the pink haired boy's dreams and Kirino opened his eyes with a convulsed movement and a face that was out of fear. Finding Shindou by his side, he trembled.

“Shindou ...?”

Even more tears began to form in his eyes that ran down his cheeks with speed and he hugged him desperately, his clenched hands clutching the boy's clothes. Shindou opened his mouth perplexed, immediately put his arms around him back in a protective attitude and tried to calm him while he cried.

“Calm down, Kirino, I don't know what happened but it only was a nightmare.”

Kirino said nothing, the events of the nightmare were still recent, the hateful expression in the Shindou's eyes from the dream, his words… What if the real Shindou felt that way too?

“Do you hate me, Shindou?” he asked with a sob and hardly a voice.

The wavy-haired boy's eyes widened in confusion, hating him? Why would he hate him? Kirino was the most important person to him, how could he hate him !?

“How could I hate you? I would rather be dead than hate you.”

Little by little Kirino calmed down and in the end he separated from Shindou who wouldn’t care to stay a little more embraced, he rarely had the opportunity to comfort Kirino, normally it was the other way around.

"I'm… I'm so sorry, Shindou," he apologized embarrassed for what just happened.

"It's nothing." He smiled reassuringly, then brought his hand to his forehead. “It seems that you have a little fever again, "I will prepare your medicine again.”

Kirino snorted, his head hurt a lot, it looked like someone was hitting him with a mallet. 

Shindou made him lie down again and promised that he would come back to him in a moment, he kissed his head and left, leaving Kirino burning even more.

True to his word a few minutes later he was back there, with the boy's medicine and dinner for both of them. Kirino framed an eyebrow and reluctantly looked at the food, very surprised at that.

"You must eat to recover," the boy explained simply.

“I don't wanna dinner.”

Shindou sighed but shook his head.

“You have to recover, Kirino, and you need to eat something for it.”

Kirino turned with all his might and looked at the food with great suspicion.

“Did you do that?”

Shindou blushed and his lips curled slightly shyly.

“Yes.”

Kirino swallowed, oh god… The memory of the mud pie surfaced in the back of his mind with the same internal sensation as if someone ran their fingernails over a blackboard, he felt a chill. But he couldn't say anything to Shindou, not with that face he'd just put on, not if he'd made such an effort cooking for him; moreover, there was little chance that the food would carry mud. He stood up and Shindou hurriedly put the pillow so that he could support his back and be comfortable. He put the tray with his noodles on it and sat next to him to eat as well.

"Enjoy your meal" the boy smiled, hoping he was at least able to cook that correctly. He was the first to try it and a small shadow appeared on his face, it was clear that he forgot something and did not know what.

Kirino didn't notice, he was blowing his food to avoid burning himself, and then he put the noodles in his mouth. It was gross.

"..." He looked at Shindou for a moment and saw his expression, so he looked down and swallowed what he put in his mouth. When he raised his face again he smiled at him. “It's delicious, thank you very much, Shindou.”

“Ah?” Shindou noticed how his heart shook at the same time that Kirino smiled at him, and he didn't know why, would the fever have hit him?

Kirino continued eating without saying anything else, since he needed all his concentration to ingest that. When he finished, he felt calmer and devoted himself to observing Shindou who had not finished yet, because it was much more difficult for him to pretend that this was good. His blue eyes started to make him nervous and he ended up getting the tasteless soup from the noodles over his shirt.

"How clumsy you are, Shindou," laughed the pink-haired, more animated. “You should wear something of mine anyway, if you're going to spend the night here you'll be more comfortable in pajamas.”

Shindou blushed at the thought.

“But you are much thinner, I don't think something of yours fits me well.”

“No problem, I like to wear loose pajamas”

Kirino sat up, a little unsure at first, he also wanted to go to the bathroom. Worried, Shindou got to his feet and prepared himself in case he had to catch him, accompanying him to the door of the bathroom where he, the pink-haired boy, refused to let him in.

After that he looked for comfortable clothes for the boy who had a wider back, it took longer than the boy would have liked, but he was idling and his body would not allow him any more. Shindou's clothes were somewhat fitting, especially on the shoulders, but he had no major problem, the worst thing for him was that the clothes smelled of his friend, that made him nervous without being able to remedy it.

Kirino went back into bed and looked at him from there, realizing that he didn’t prepar a bed for Shindou and that he was too tired to do so.

“Do you sleep with me, Shindou?”

Shindou, who was currently grabbing the tray to put it back to the kitchen with the remains, felt that he was slipping from his stupor, although luckily he held it at the last moment. He turned without understanding and Kirino cocked his head, making his loose hair fall intriguingly over his shoulders.

“Don’t tell me that you plan to sleep in the chair all night, right?”

Shindou looked at the chair, he didn't think about that. Kirino smiled, perhaps affected by feverish delusions he didn't realize what he was saying.

When Shindou returned after cleaning the kitchen, he felt that he was much more nervous than he had ever been. What nonsense! He slept with Kirino many times, it was true that rarely in the same bed but… No, he shook his head, he couldn't think of strange things. They were friends, they were. Best friends.

But when he layed with Kirino and noticed that he was hugging him, he thought that maybe ... maybe he should stay in the chair.

"I love you ..." Kirino smiled already in his dreams.    
Shindou swallowed hard.

“I-I …”

“We will always be friends, right?”

Shindou felt somewhat disappointed, and immediately felt worried about being disappointed, why was he disappointed? Perhaps… did he want the pink haired boy's words to mean something else? It made no sense! No, none.

Kirino got closer to him, Shindou noticed that he was getting quite hot, he hoped that the medicine would take effect again soon. Their faces were practically glued together. Shindou could have moved and yet he stood there still, feeling very strange about all that. Kirino sighed and Shindou felt his breath on his face, along with a tremor along his body.

“Kirino?”

“It's me …”

Shindou didn't know what else to say, he just hugged him in a reflex act, Kirino smiled again, would he really be asleep and answer in dreams?. It would be too embarrassing otherwise.

To Shindou's surprise and embarrassment, the pink-haired boy closed the distance between his lips and kissed him, if that touch could be called that, a touch so soft and so short that it left the dark-haired boy totally awake. His red eyes widened in an indecipherable expression. Kirino immediately turned around and let out a sovereign snore that made Shindou wince, his whole body burning like his partner's and his heart beating so hard that it looked like he just played the biggest football match of his lifetime.

The next morning Kirino woke up fully recovered, he slept as he didn’t in a long time. Although of course, he didn't remember anything and Shindou didn't feel strong enough to tell him. That night it was him who barely slept, he kept awake remembering again and again that contact so fleeting, so intimate ... No, he wouldn't say anything, it would be his secret.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I hope you're enjoying the story. Tomorrow another one!


	8. This boy is very stressed!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Make up chapter! There're only two more until the Party itself.

"You're late" said the pink-haired boy with a rather unpleasant grunt to the teenager who just called the house doorbell.

That afternoon was cold, but not freezing, and the sky that was already preparing for the night began to darken.

"Come on, come on, Kirino" protested the teenager standing in front of him, with his blue eyes twinkling with laughter, unlike those of the appellee who maintained an expression of annoyance. “We’ve three hours before Shindou comes for you, we have plenty of time. Now let me in, please, I'm going to freeze.”

“Ichino!” called a dark-haired boy coming out of one of the rooms with a smile and clearly relieved to see his friend. “I have been here, alone, bearing this neurotic for more than half an hour. You don't know how glad I am to see you!”

Although his expression did reflect that happiness. Kirino moved away from the door and Ichino politely entered.

“Kirino's parents are still at work.”

“Better that way! They only know that I'm going to a party with Shindou and they've laughed at me enough, imagine if they’d know I'm going as a girl.”

Ichino and Aoyama nearly laughed too.

“I'm sure your parents are happy that you can spend Christmas Eve with him, after all it's a very romantic night.”

“Yes, of course, and be alone too.”

The boys exchanged glances with each other and smiled at Kirino's back.

“But the way, did you already take a shower?” Ichino asked, taking off his shoes and going into the house.

"Yes" Kirino grumbled. “Four times! But I sweat so much that I'll have to shower once more.”

“Are you nervous?” Aoyama cackled, earning a furious gaze from the pink-haired.

“Of course I'm nervous! If they catch me I'm a dead man! If someone discovers me… I…”

Kirino let out a desperate cry as he pulled his hair out and the other two laughed even more.

"Listen, Kirino," Ichino called softly. “Go take a shower and put this product on your armpits and ... other areas where you sweat, my mother recommends it to the most nervous models and says it's holy hand. It sure will help you with your glandular problems.”

The boy threw a bolt at him with a wink and Kirino caught him firmly. Then he turned to them, looked at them with a certain psychopathic air, and without saying anything ran to the shower. Ichino and Aoyama heard the bathroom door slam followed by running water.

“This boy is very stressed!”

"What are you going to tell me?" Sighed the brunette, crossing his arms and sitting on the couch. “This half an hour that I was alone with him was the longest of my life.”

"That's because you were missing me" laughed Ichino, sitting next to him.

Aoyama sighed, had closed his eyes for a moment but opened them again with a small blush on his cheeks.

"Maybe" he murmured with a slight hint of flirtation in his voice that Ichino, however, did not catch.   
"We're going to have to inject him linden in blood to calm Kirino down" Ichino said, hearing the boy's horrible grunts from upstairs.

Aoyama suffered a small tic in his eye. Right then he didn’t understand what charm Kirino’s fanatic girls (and guys) found at him. Because Kirino also had a lot of male fans. For example himself. He huffed ashamed; oh yes, he also admired Kirino a lot, in secret of course. In fact Aoyama admired all his teammates very much and had a collection of anime-style figurines that were made of the Raimon team a year before, he had them all, including himself, he and Ichino were very surprised that they were included. because they usually were benched. 

Anyway, Aoyama felt more and more embarrassed in the company of Kirino, it was the problem of friendship.

Ichino sighed loudly.

“We got up to our necks in this situation, huh?”

“You can't deny that it's being fun ... most of the time.”

“I hope tonight everything goes well for him.”

Ichino leaned forward on the sofa and rested his chin on his hands, elbows on his knees, thoughtful.

Aoyama looked at him, then put his hands behind his head nonchalantly.

“That depends on them.”

“Yeah…” Ichino bit his lips and Aoyama felt a heat wave because he felt the impulse to do the same.

“Aoyama?” the cobalt-eyed boy called, touching his friend's arm. “You good?”

“Eh? Sure!” He laughed exaggeratedly with his heart to a thousand, did he notice how he looked at his lips? “I'm just nervous.”

“Right,” Ichino smiled “now it's your turn to show off, right?”

Aoyama blinked without understanding much, but then blushed and nodded.

“I hope to do well!”

“Surely you’ll.”

Ichino hugged Aoyama to cheer him up and the brunette felt like he was in heaven. 

A cough interrupted them and they parted as if an electric current had passed through their bodies. Kirino was leaning against the door frame, arms folded and watching them with a lethal gaze, only his hips covered in a towel.

“If you have stopped playing footsie…”

Ichino and Aoyama blushed, although they weren’t going to let that remain as such, they would take revenge as soon as they could, for a moment they were tempted to comment on what would happen if Shindou saw him with the towel like that, but it wouldn't be enough as revenge because in truth Shindou saw him like that many times, Shindou and the whole team actually. Kirino had the bad habit of walking only with that towel around the locker room after taking a shower, even despite the addition of some female members to the team; although Kinako seemed to not care the other two girls were very embarrassed. 

There was a moment of tension in which none of the three knew what else to do or say. The first to react was Aoyama, who approached the door and tapped Kirino on the shoulder.

“Come on, now it's time to make yourself pretty.”

Kirino bared his teeth in annoyance, and Aoyama felt the pleasure of revenge. Ichino meanwhile went to the kitchen.

“I'll make you an infusion for your nerves.”

Once alone in the kitchen Ichino felt his pulse tremble, what a shame! What would Aoyama think of him for hugging him like that? Shortly thereafter he came up with a cup of a soothing infusion for Kirino, who drank it down with a spark of bitterness in his eyes.

He was sitting in a chair in his room while the dark-haired boy looked at a briefcase that he brought. Inside there were many "instruments of torture", in Kirino's own words, although in reality it was hairdressing instruments. Brush and blow dryer in hand, Aoyama began to prepare Kirino's hairstyle with great delicacy. 

The pink-haired boy who never endured much in hairdressing salons saw himself going through hell as they continually repeated to him to be still, and he even managed to get Aoyama out of nerves and give him a swipe.

When he finished, the dark-haired boy was sweating and snorted, glad to have finished the first part of the operation "make-up Kirino".

“What do you think?” he asked Ichino, who was expertly evaluating the hairstyle.

“You're not going to ask me?” Kirino protested. “I am the most interested in that it turned out well!”

“Perfect” Ichino smiled winking at Aoyama and completely ignoring Kirino who began to protest with more force.

Aoyama blushed and turned around with the excuse of looking for a pair of mirrors so that Kirino could see the hairstyle. When he saw himself, despite being moved by Ichino's opinion, he felt his soul drop to his feet.

“I want to die.”

"Well, well" Ichino laughed as Aoyama took out some flat cases from the briefcase. “Now shut your mouth and be still.”

Aoyama turned to Kirino, sticking out his tongue slightly as he did when he had to concentrate, Kirino clung to his chair. If the first part was horrible, it was on another level, they plucked his eyebrows with a tweezer, he felt the powder that the brunette put all over his face, he couldn't speak and he wanted to sneeze on top of it.

"Finished," Aoyama sighed much longer he’d had wanted, Kirino moved at a critical moment of the makeup and damaged it, so he had to repeat that area.

Ichino also seemed relieved that they were finished.

"You are very skilled, Aoyama" the light-haired boy admired, Kirino just looked rudely at the two of them. He didn't even have the courage to ask them to show him how it turned out.

"I learned a lot from my mother" said the flattered one, with a smile.

Aoyama's mother was a makeup artist, she and Ichino's mother worked together. Hence their strong friendship that was inherited by their children.

“You just have to put the dress on.”

A noise from beyond the grave made the two teenagers laugh. There was little left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you'll like it! Thank you to everyone who is reading it and giving support! This means a lot.


	9. It took us sweat and tears!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Hope everyone is fine, today new chapter is the last with Kirino before the Party. Next two chapters are Aoyama and Ichino focused. And then, the Party.

Kirino walked nervously from one side of the living room to the other, he went barefoot because he refused to put on his sandals until it was strictly necessary. From the couch, the other two teenagers looked at him, wanting everything to end at once. 

If they believed that once he was done with the looks everything would be for the better, they were tremendously wrong. The wait until Shindou came looking for him was being a thousand times worse than everything else.

The boys gnashed their teeth as they played a football video game, the FFI XXII, on the pink-haired console.

“Run, Fidio! Run!” Aoyama suddenly shouted nervously, pressing the buttons like crazy for Orpheus Captain to reach the opposite goal. 

"Take the ball from him, Dylan!" Ichino exclaimed even louder, turning the control as if this would help him, the boy leading the team The Unicorn.

Kirino felt a fit of anger and turned off the console with a social perturbed look.

“Hey!”

“Kirino! I was about to score with Ichinose!”

“You are making me very nervous!” Kirino exclaimed, stumbling over himself and narrowly avoiding falling to the ground.

The other two boys held back laughter.

"Don't blame us anyway" Aoyama complained, leaving the control on the table. “You are stressing yourself.”

“It's true, Kirino. Why don't you play with us for a while? This will make your wait more bearable.”

The pink haired boy stopped without knowing what to do, they were right, there was nothing he could do until Shindou arrived and that way he would avoid thinking about those things he did not want to think about.

"Okay" he agreed, taking the control Aoyama left in the face of his protests, and sitting down between the two. “I will be Knights of Queen.”

"Very well," Ichino smiled. “I will choose Inazuma Japan this time.”

Aoyama snorted, Ichino almost always chose Inazuma Japan, he was obsessed with Inazuma Japan. The brunette discovered that his friend had a bunch of cuts from the Inazuma Japan team and collected all the merchandise that fell into his hands over the years.

They started playing and Kirino pleasantly discovered that it did work to distract him. Being forced to focus his attention on the movements of the characters kept other things out of his mind, such as how humiliating it would be if someone discover he was a boy.

"And you plan to declare to Shindou tonight, Kirino?" Ichino suddenly asked when Edgar was too close to his goal, hoping to confuse Kirino and avoid the goal. 

“What did you say!?” Kirino looked at Ichino who found that his strategy was even more effective than he expected.

“It's a very special night, isn't it? Wouldn't it be super romantic? It is said that the couples who kiss on Christmas Eve will be together forever” Aoyama helped getting Ichino to score a goal with Gouenji and his Fire Tornado.

“You're crazy!” Kirino exclaimed, scoring a goal to himself because the control slipped from the hands of his own nerves.

There was a moment of silence, both outside the video game and inside it, a Mohican-haired Inazuma Japan character made a rather hurtful comment towards the Knight of Queen.

"At least you don't denny us that you have a crush on Shindou" Ichino laughed, slapping Kirino on the back.

Kirino's lip trembled and he opened his mouth to say, surely, that he hadn’t a crush on Shindou, but the two friends saw his actions coming and laughed before he could say it.

"Leave me alone," he growled like a caveman and leaned forward to get up, but the two boys stopped him at the same time.

“Come on, come on, it's not that bad …”

Aoyama opened his mouth without finishing the sentence when he saw how Ichino hugged Kirino, who was as surprised with that as the brunette.

"You are very brave to me, Kirino," the light-haired boy smiled.

Kirino did not know what to say to that. He looked at Aoyama to see if he said something but the poor boy had still not recovered from seeing his best friend hugging another. Is it that Ichino would like Kirino? Just thinking about it, his guts seemed about to explode.

"I wouldn't be able to do what you are doing," Ichino continued, pulling away from Kirino. “I hope the night turns out as you wish.”

Ichino's bright smile made Kirino blush with embarrassment and Aoyama's mouth widened in astonishment even more.

At that moment the doorbell rang and Kirino stood up with such speed that it looked as if a rocket was put in his ass.

“Take your things!” The boy was putting on his sandals in a hurry and the looks of the other two only made him more nervous. 

They already had everything ready and their sneakers were much easier to put on than the pink-haired's sandals, so they finished long before him. The doorbell rang again, and Kirino's eyes flashed very much like a madman's.

Aoyama rolled his eyes and patted him on the back, opening the door himself.

On the other side was Shindou. He wore an elegant men's suit that consisted of a dark gray jacket, a black vest underneath, a pink shirt and a discreet blood red bow tie at the neck, pants, equally gray, and black shoes that shone like a star.

The boy was ravishingly attractive dressed like that, but he gaped at Kirino, unable to speak. He blushed and couldn't look away from the pink haired boy.

.

Kirino was looking at him reproachfully with his already big blue eyes, increased even more thanks to the mascara. He wished he could go with a such a nice suit instead of a dress!   
His long hair, always gathered in two pigtails, was carefully combed, two small braids began at the temple level and carried his hair back, to a delicate silver-colored barrette and then fell wavy on his shoulders.    
The exquisitely made-up face increased the size of his precious eyes and his lips looked so bright that Shindou wanted to kiss them. It wasn’t a flamboyant makeup, but Aoyama had known how to enhance the already beautiful features of his friend without making him look like a clown.

The uncovered neck was adorned by a silver choker from which a pair of strands dangled, in the center was a sparkling faceted mineral, matching the dangle earrings that they had managed to Kirino’s dislike putting on. It was high-end jewelry. 

Kirino's bare shoulders troubled Shindou and he continued to run his eyes and mouth open over the boy's body. The indigo dress was fluffy and soft, a strapless cut, with a ruffled chest below which a glittering belt poked. Then the dress fell into a balloon hiding the real shapes of the boy.

His legs, thin and white, perfectly shaved, looked almost bare except for some very simple sandals but with bright jewels to match the outfit. Also on his wrists he wore hoop bracelets that gave a slight clink every time the boy moved. In one of the hands he was holding a small bag the same color as the dress and his nails had a pearly shine.

"Well..." Shindou put his hand to the nape of his neck, for a moment he believed that he was dead and that the most beautiful angel in heaven came looking for him.

“What do you think of our styling work, Shindou?” Ichino laughed looking at the boy's face.

“It has cost us sweat and tears” Aoyama scoffed amused by Shindou's stupid expression.

“Sweat! The sweat I've been through” Kirino snorted, making them leave to close the door behind them.

"Please take good care of him, Shindou" both boys recommended in unison. 

Shindou, still dumbfounded, nodded and motioned for Kirino to accompany him to the car. He couldn't believe that he saw something so beautiful with his mortal eyes.

When going to say goodbye Ichino approached Kirino and whispered in his ear, so that Shindou did not find out.

“Love doesn’t understand about social barriers, Kirino.”

And then he turned to slap Shindou.

“Enjoy that party, man! Whatever you need you give us a touch …” those words were more for Kirino.

"If it's three in the morning, preferably not ..." Aoyama murmured, who had indeed heard Ichino's comment. Then he said goodbye to them more awkwardly. Thinking of those words that for some reason produced a great burning inside him.

"Be a good lady, Kirino" Ichino laughed one last time as he watched Shindou open the car door for him to go inside.

Kirino turned with one last lethal glance as the other two friends laughed loudly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I hope you liked it. Every kind of feedback is welcome, thank you!


	10. Our work is done

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, everyone! Today's first chapter featuring Ichino and Aoyama. One more until the Party

The car with Shindou and Kirino started with a soft purr of its magnificent engine, they heard the crunch of the gravel and the lights went away until they took a turn and no longer saw them.

Ichino and Aoyama, who were saying goodbye with their hands, lowered their arms and sighed. It was finally over.

"Our work is already done" laughed Ichino, feeling that he freed himself from an immense burden, turned to his dark-haired friend, slapped him on the back, and smiled at him. “Let's go home.”

Aoyama who had become very thoughtful nodded without realizing very well what he was told. In his head he kept hearing over and over "love doesn't understand about social barriers." And then he would hear Ichino saying "I'm not that brave." Why? Why couldn't he get those words out of his mind? If he thought coldly, he was sure that Ichino said that only to motivate Kirino to confess, but ... Why did it hurt him so much? Sigh. He was not brave either.

As they walked, he was not aware of the cold in which the night enveloped, but Ichino did notice it and his eyes were narrowed, glancing sideways at Aoyama, who walked with his head down and deep in thought.

They walked a long time, passed the lighted streets, and came to a darker place, a little park with a large metal tower on a hill. The Inazuma Tower.

“What are we doing here?” Aoyama asked suddenly, stopping abruptly and looking around. “I thought we were going home.”

Ichino laughed out loud.

“And now you realize?” He went over to a bench and sat down, tapping Aoyama to sit next to him.

“Ichino !, It's very cold!”

Aoyama protested standing in front of him but not sitting down. For his part, Ichino did not seem to mind. He smiled mysteriously and stared at the illuminated City of Inazuma with narrowed eyes.

“Don't you think the City is beautiful at Christmas?” he asked without taking his eyes off the horizon. Above them the stars shone.

“What?”

Aoyama blinked slowly, not understanding anything, then huffed and sat on the bench restlessly. Hoping that whatever Ichino wanted would be over soon so they could go home.

“Okay, Ichino, what do you want?”

The boy smiled a little more, and then tried to act surprised.

“I don't want anything, Aoyama.”

"Yes, of course" he snorted.

Ichino's smile trembled a little, but he recovered and remained silent. They both stared at the lights in silence for a few minutes.

“I brought you here because you are acting very strange, Aoyama, what is the matter with you?”

Aoyama turned to his friend without fully understanding, what was strange about him? In his opinion, Ichino was much weirder taking him to that place just like that.

“Nothing.”

Ichino rolled his eyes, as if he was going to believe that.

"You have not answered me even once to the things I have told you on the way," he accused. “Although you have been weird for a while, since ... since …” Ichino blushed a little, Aoyama was weird since he arrived at Kirino's house.

"I didn't realize you were talking to me ..." the dark-haired boy confessed ashamed and looking at his sneakers with renewed interest. 

“What's wrong? I'm worried.”

Aoyama allowed himself a slight smile, then threw his head back and looked at the sky.

“I was thinking about what you said to Kirino.”

"I have told him many things, Aoyama" Ichino snorted, folding his arms.

The brunette looked at him sideways and blushed, although thanks to the low light of the place it was not noticeable.

"I don't think I'm as brave as Kirino, either." He sighed deeply, then continued. “The truth is that I was thinking about what you said about love... that it doesn’t understand about social barriers.”

The brunette scratched his cheek and didn’t take his eyes off the sky. If he would did, he would had noticed that Ichino opened his mouth enormously surprised. That was the least expected.

"I think you are very brave," he pointed out, noticing a huge thing churning in his stomach, it came so suddenly ...

"I am not ... Because ... because ..." Aoyama began to get very nervous and to his despair his leg involuntarily began to twitch.

There was a silence between them again, a tense, electric silence. During which Ichino looked at Aoyama's leg that when noticing how he was looking at him began to move even faster.

"The thing is that to me ... to me ..." The brunette furrowed his eyebrows and shook his head, looked directly into Ichino's eyes before continuing. “I like someone, okay?”

Those last words came out of his mouth very aggressively, causing him to be surprised himself.

Ichino was perplexed, with a trembling running through his body, did Aoyama like someone? But he never ... never told him ... He couldn’t imagine ..., a deep sadness gripped Ichino's heart as they continued in that eye contact. Did Aoyama like Kirino? He knew he had several figurines and other merchandise from him but ... His stomach looked like lead and he didn't know what to say. He thought that Aoyama laughed heartily with him when they got into how obvious Kirino was with his love for Shindou ... 

Aoyama perceived that deep disappointment in Ichino's eyes, a feeling that he wasn’t able to verbalize. Oh shit. The brunette trembled nervously, he was going to hate him forever! Surely he was a vile being and did not deserve to exist.

“And who do you like, Aoyama?” Ichino asked with a thread of voice, full of bitterness, at least he wanted to know who it was. As much as it hurt him in those moments, Aoyama was the most important being for him, besides his mother, and he would support him until the end.

The brunette raised his eyebrows, had he not understood? No, it seemed like no ... otherwise he wouldn't ask him. 

Ichino didn’t look Aoyama in the eye, he was staring blankly somewhere and the brunette believed he saw a shine that could be tears. 

He clenched his fists and stood up suddenly making Ichino freak out. They stayed like that for a moment, then Aoyama turned to him, and the boy couldn't help but look him in the eye again.

“I like you, Ichino!” Aoyama shouted, closing his eyes, noticing the completely red face and the pounding heart.

Ichino opened his mouth from the shock of it. Aoyama noticed how a strong tremor invaded him. It was already done, it was already said. 

The light-haired boy moved his mouth without a sound and Aoyama was so terrified by what might happen that he couldn't help but run towards his house without stopping to look back.

Ichino gave an exclamation that was not made up of any real words when he saw how Aoyama started running like a professional athlete.

He sat for a few moments, when he heard Aoyama's words, he felt as if he was thrown headfirst into a boiling pot. His legs were shaking and his heart was racing faster than ever. The heaviness he felt earlier vanished and was replaced by such great happiness that it made him want to laugh out loud.

But he could not laugh out loud, if someone passed by they would think he was crazy, and being left alone that was not very safe.

Ichino leaned on his still trembling knees.

“Why does he run so fast?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I hope you liked it. Tomorrow more


	11. What do you think?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like a lot this chapter, I really like a lot Ichino and Aoyama. I hope you'll like it too!

When his body finally decided to respond to his mental commands, Ichino stood up from the bench. He noted that Aoyama, in his haste to flee, left the briefcase with which he worked the Kirino miracle.

He breathed heavily, he wanted to get there with him, to answer him. He took the briefcase and started off quickly for his friend's house. Without being able to avoid running on some moments. He felt a little tired from all the emotions he experienced, and that only just began.

Upon arriving at Aoyama's house, which was next to his, he was thoughtful, what words exactly should he use to answer his dear friend? A neighbor who also entered his house greeted him politely.

Aoyama's mother opened the door and was surprised to see the boy there.

"You finally decide to appear!"

Ichino opened his eyes without understanding.

"Your mother was trying to locate you for more than an hour! And my stupid son just arrived too. Do you think you can just not answering the calls?"

The woman's screams made another woman appear, as Ichino began to feel deadly terror.

"Well, well, who deigned to come!"

Ichino cringed a little at the door, his mother always became very angry when he did not answer the calls.

"Go dress yourself right now, you look like a tramp!"

A third person was attracted by the screams, it was Aoyama himself, who appeared from the stairs. Ichino looked at him and opened his mouth to greet him, but the brunette's mother who noticed noticed turned wildly.

"Shunsuke finish dressing for dinner or you will eat on the dog's plate!"

"Dinner" Ichino murmured, putting his hand to his face, he completely forgot that the two families were going to dinner together that night.

"Nanasuke you have 10 minutes" his mother threatened, although it was not necessary, Ichino already run to his own house to dress for the occasion, and Aoyama, fearing another reprimand like the one that happened when he arrived, stealthily back to his room.

Ichino dressed the best he could, the rush and nerves played against him and when he returned to Aoyama's house, where they were going to have dinner, his mother smarted him up as if he was still 5 years old.

"Stop, mom ..." protested the boy who was being combed, tucking in his shirt well and putting his tie on properly.

"Close that mouth, Nanasuke."

Ichino made a strange noise, Aoyama observed him from the door frame, sneaking. Were they paying some kind of karma for what they did to Kirino? He couldn't understand it any other way.

Dinner was strange for the two teenagers. Ichino's mother was single and Aoyama's was divorced, so the 4 of them would have been alone if the women hadn't invited several more friends. The two boys did not know anything about that, and they felt a little out of place surrounded by women who were gradually falling under the effects of alcoholic beverages and started to play a karaoke to which they forced the boys to participate. That would not have been so bad if they both hadn’t a pending conversation and Aoyama tried to avoid the eyes of Ichino who did everything possible for the boy to look at him.

As soon as Ichino could, he excused the two of them, took a surprised Aoyama by the hand and led him without saying anything to the brunette's room, closing the door behind them. The boy felt a cold sweat run down his body.

"Are you going to kill me?" he asked, totally embarrassed, moving away from Ichino and going to the furthest point of the room.

The boy smiled and approached slowly, he did not want to be very aggressive and he did not know how to say what he felt. 

"What do you think?"

Aoyama moved further away, scared and red-faced. Ichino sighed and sat down on the brunette's bed, trying to adopt a carefree expression, but he was so nervous that he didn’t succeed.

He looked down and scratched his head, hoping that this would be easier since the first step was already done by Aoyama, but in the end it was as complicated as it seemed whenever he imagined some similar situation.

"Are you not mad at me?" Aoyama asked softly when he saw the expression of the light-haired boy.

The boy looked up to meet his frightened eyes, shook his head and smiled at him tenderly.

"Why should I be?" Ichino sighed, boy how much did it cost him to say it. And that he really didn't want to give his partner those waitings.

"Well …"

There was a silence between them, that time it was an expectant silence, full of hope. Ichino got up and went to where Aoyama was staring into his eyes, the brunette remained paralyzed in place, not daring to move.

When the boy reached him he raised his hands, making Aoyama close his eyes, and gently touched his face. Aoyama felt a soft caress on his cheek. He opened his eyes and saw Ichino's blue orbs, and in them himself reflected with his mouth slightly open.

Ichino smiled, Aoyama was so cute, so adorable. He loved those innocent expressions. He brought his face closer to his as they both blushed.

"What ... what are you doing?" asked the brunette.

He knew immediately. Ichino pressed his lips together, closing his eyes to enjoy that contact with Aoyama. At first he was surprised and paralyzed, but as Ichino pressed his lips against his, he relaxed and let himself go to enjoy it, hugging him with such sweetness that Ichino thought he was going to melt with love.

They stayed like that for a long time, until they parted with a weak laugh. The separation was short because as soon as they looked each other in the eyes, Aoyama launched himself at Ichino again and they followed with another kiss, and then another, and another.

Ichino carried by the moment began to kiss him more passionately and the brunette allowed himself to be carried holding onto his back with much more force. Although by a bad step they both tripped and fell to the ground with a crash.

"Oh …"

Aoyama started laughing and immediately infected Ichino who got on him and started tickling him between fleeting kisses.

"Stop, stop!!" The brunette had tears in his eyes from laughter and when Ichino stopped he breathed heavily.

"I love you" the light-haired boy said, looking at him with all the power of his released feelings.

The brunette smiled, stroking his face.

"I love you too."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter Kirino and Shindou arrive to the Party. Thanks for reading!


	12. It's pretty, isn’t it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here it's! The party itself. My favourite chapters are from the second part of the story. I hope you'll enjoy them as much as me!

Meanwhile, in a place further away from the city Kirino trembled nervously, believing that things could not get worse, although in truth they were not doing so badly until then.

Shindou took the pink haired boy to his parents before entering the Mansion where the Party was taking place, presenting him as Ranko, Kirino's cousin and it seemed that the lie was accepted without any suspicion. Or so they believed, how innocent. 

Mr. Shindou only made a comment about how incredible the family resemblances were, truly believing that the girl was Kirino's cousin and surprised, although he did not verbalize it, that his son didn’t invite Kirino himself to the party as he thought his son would did. 

While the mother of the wavy-haired boy, tremendously beautiful and quite intelligent, only smiled compassionately, why didn't that surprise her at all? What a cringe but what fun at the same time. The woman adopting an ignorant innocence asked them to take endless photos of them. Kirino with the red face did not dare to refuse. The woman had great plans for those photos, she thought to pass them to her son's face whenever she felt like it. The crazy things young people did for love. In fact, she was going to start by sending a photo to her …

  
  


In another place and from the ignorance of the two teenagers, a mobile phone vibrated to indicate the reception of a message. 

“Why do you have to be on the phone tonight?” growled a male voice.

"In case something happens to our little boy" sighed the pink-haired woman. “He has been very strange for a few days and I have asked Mrs. Shindou to keep me informed, you know how Ranmaru gets ... He doesn't know anything, he would think I don't trust him.”

The man, Kirino's father, snorted, and what was going to happen to his son? At most he could have an attack if a girl took the Shindou's son to dance. He drinked from his glass and his wife followed him as she opened the message she just received. Her color became blue and she released, as if she was a sprinkler, what she just put in her mouth. Not for nothing was the boy's mother.

“What…!”

The woman turned very red and looked at her husband with her mouth open, showing him the photo in response. The man smoothed his mustache, his expression unflappable.

“I didn't know that Kirino was one of those modern boys.”

The two looked at each other in amazement, then laughed. Oh, how they were going to enjoy messing with their only offspring after that. 

The mother sighed and they continued dining alone. Now he understood why Ranmaru had not wanted her to enter his room in the last time. At first she thought it was because he had brought some stray animal, like those cats full of fleas that the boy from the Shindou eventually adopted because they couldn't keep them. But the lack of animal food odor had made her suspect that it might be something else. Now she knew what his son was hiding.

“It would be great fun to spy on them in Paris, don't you think?” she muttered suddenly.

“Uf …” the man shook his head without being convinced, he was sure it was going to be a trip full of moments of shame.

  
  


Mrs. Shindou received the reply almost immediately, Kirino's mother sent her a smiley smile and then several hearts saying how handsome the two teenagers were. She smiled too. She knew she could bug them a little bit more, so when the boys were talking to each other, she went up to her husband and said as if she only wanted him to listen to her but with the tone high enough for the two others to actually hear her. 

"Too bad Takuto didn't come with Ranmaru, right, honey? Ranko is certainly beautiful, but I would have liked to get Ranmaru to dance, I have always liked him.” 

Kirino turned red as a tomato and super stiff, he even thought he saw the woman wink at him. 

"Just relax and act like always" Shindou said to his friend who preferred to ignore his mother's comment.

“How can I relax like this!?”

Kirino crossed his arms and decided not to say anything more to Shindou, what an idiot he was. 

The Shindous came to greet the host of that Party as soon as they entered, as the label for the occasion dictated. Kirino forgot his anger and looked amazed at the place, he had never seen anything like that in his life.

This was a much larger mansion even than Shindou's. And only in the hall of the Shindou’s mansion could the entire Kirino house fit.

They moved into a small room, as the host called it. Although that little room was the same size as the soccer fields where the boys played. Bright chandeliers dangled from the ceiling, glinting multicolored, the decorations on the walls were so elegant, and the tables were draped with tablecloths so white and immaculate that the pink-haired boy gave an exclamation. On those white tablecloths there were golden plates and on the golden plates there were endless canapes and appetizers of such beauty that it made him want to cry with transitory happiness, they were surely delicious! And they had no mud. The boy with pink hair did not fit himself with such emotion when seeing the place.

The man who organized the Party talked effusively with Shindou's parents and occasionally looked at Kirino. He felt very uncomfortable, why would he look at him like that?

"I didn't know you had such a pretty girlfriend, Takuto" the man smiled suddenly, making the two teenagers blush.

Shindou tried to say that  _ she _ was not his girlfriend but the words got stuck in his mouth and he decided to move on to the tactic of getting away from them by awkwardly excusing himself.

They approached one of the canapés tables, away from the people who were talking behind their backs as in any good high society gathering. Kirino heard some parts of the conversations that were in his path ... Some said that  _ she _ was a very beautiful girl and others said that  _ she _ was little for Shindou. He snorted filling a plate of food, he had hoped that these people were different.

“It’s pretty, isn’t it?” Shindou asked, politely greeting a couple who walked by. Whether or not he heard of the conversations was a mystery to Kirino, who nodded distractedly thinking what he could eat first. All of the appetizers looked delicious, and had mostly differentiable ingredients.

Then he sighed, he wanted to focus on the food, but ... but he was really starting to feel uncomfortable, so many looks watching him, judging him. For a moment he remembered the nightmare from two nights before, and he felt his hand tremble. He made himself think of something else and looked at Shindou, that world was not his own, but for Shindou he would put up with it

“You seem distracted, Kirino” commented the wavy-haired boy starting to put some food on a plate, he was also hungry .

The pink-haired turned to him to answer when his blood ran cold. Danger, danger. Just two meters away, and approaching them, was a smiling young man, brown skin and brown hair, with an orange bandana on his head, a black suit that absolutely did not fit his personality and white sneakers.

“Shindou! I didn't expect to meet my best midfielder here.”

He turned, he had not seen the young man and when he was face to face with his coach, his face paled as he shook hands too effusively.

"I thought I wouldn't know anyone and it turns out there are a lot of friends around here" Endou laughed. “Who would have thought, right?”

"Right" Shindou replied in a very sharp voice.

Endou turned to Kirino and for a moment stared at him in amazement, Kirino blushed aggressively, but Endou shook his head and held out his hand.

“Sorry, you look like a person I know. Nice to meet you, my name is Endou Mamoru and I am Shindou’s coach.”

"Ha ha ha" the teens laughed falsely. “Surely he is my cousin Ranmaru ... my name is Ranko…”

Kirino felt a lot of relief as he shook his hand because at least Endou did not seem to have realized his true identity, he could not have bear with the shame otherwise. If his coach found out ...

“What a beautiful companion you have looked for, huh, Shindou? Although it seems strange that you didn’t come with Kirino” Endou laughed “I come with Natsumi, look at her. She's already looking for me to keep introducing me to all the big shots. Don't tell her you've seen me!”

Endou clapped Shindou on the back who felt that it was excessively strong and walked briskly away, while a very pretty woman with reddish brown hair approached them looking for her companion. She sighed annoyed, she saw that Endou left at the beginning, which was so typical of him... Of course she couldn't blame him, she would rather avoid these formalities too. 

"I wouldn't like to be Endou" Shindou murmured, scratching his head. “He not even realized who you are, and that he sees you every day. He never seems to find out anything that has nothing to do with soccer.”

Kirino choked on the hors d'oeuvres he was eating and nearly drowned. When he could cough it he turned to Shindou with a teary eye.

“Better this way.”

How little tact Shindou had, and how could he say that about Endou when he himself did not realize what Kirino was going through? He felt somewhat outraged.

“Endou said that there were a lot of his friends around here, who do you think they are?”

Kirino's blue eyes widened, whoever it was he hoped they didn't meet them. Because Endou could be silly and believed about Ranko but ... What if Kidou appeared? He was very intelligent, too intelligent, he would discover it in an instant and with it his reputation would be lower than hell itself. He wished Kidou wasn't there with his whole being.

“Shindou!” suddenly called a female voice that the two immediately recognized, Kirino felt a chill if she was, then ... then ... it couldn't be, it couldn't be ...

"Hey, Shindou" another voice said, grave and masculine.

Yes, there it was. Shindou turned around smiling and nervous to greet them, but Kirino remained frozen, sweating like never before in his life. Why? Why were they punishing him like that?

“What a joy, Shindou, we did not expect to see you around here. Who is your companion?” asked the female voice with innocent curiosity.

Noticing that three pairs of eyes were looking at him and that he could not avoid that situation, Kirino turned with the same grace of a rusty robot. Seeing him, the two sibblings opened their mouths in surprise. The young woman's bag slipped from her hands and fell to the floor with a thud.

"Well ..." the two muttered, glancing sideways at each other and not knowing what to say, although a slight mocking smile emerged on the man's lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for the support!


	13. It was the best joke

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I hope everyone is fine! Here today's chapter. I like it, I like the chapters about the party because I love every character that appears in them.

Kirino looked extremely embarrassed at the two young people who were smiling a little forced not knowing what to say about that. The desperate face of the pink-haired made them believe that a false word could cause irreparable damage to his self-esteem.

"Coach Kidou, Professor Haruna" Shindou politely called them with a slight bow. ·Let me introduce you to my companion… uh…” his voice altered a little, becoming high-pitched. “Kirino Ranko, she... she is Kirino's cousin and …” Shindou looked away totally embarrassed, unable to continue that farce in the horrifying fly goggles of Coach Kidou that he brought to such an occasion, they were like a huge detector of lies and his whole body shouted the word liar “and ... she is accompanying me because ... because ... I asked her to.”

The two brothers laughed at this and Kirino put a hand to his face ... goodbye pride, goodbye dignity. A dark aura of shame and hatred began to surround him.

"It was the best joke I have heard all night" Haruna laughed.

Shindou was left unsure what to say, but Kirino put his hand on his shoulder and shook his head.

"I’m sorry" Shindou apologized, who of course didn’t have to go through the humiliation of his partner.

"Don't worry, Kirino" Kidou wanted to reassure him, although it felt very funny. “There are worse things.”

“Death?” Kirino snorted without being able to look at their faces. “And yet it begins to seem so sweet to me with its temptresses…”

Haruna laughed even more and took his arm in surprise.

“Come with us, you will have a better time if you are accompanied and also you will go more unnoticed.”

“Unnoticed?, I don't know, Haruna... Tsunami is being very noisy” Kidou murmured, giving a sidelong glance at the group they had abandoned and was somewhat far from them, where a pink-haired boy with a big and ugly orange bow tie was laughing loudly and made great fuss.

Shindou and Kirino were shocked to hear Tsunami's name and turned to see the group Kidou was looking at. Kirino thought he must be in a nightmare, he was shocked, as if his soul wanted to get out of his body. There were many, too many familiar faces!

"Isn't that the Prime Minister's daughter, Miss Zaizen Touko?" Shindou asked surprised, that party must had status for her to be there.

Kirino opened his eyes for a moment, he admired these people a lot but… He covered his face with his hands. What a shame, at least there didn't seem to be Kazemaru, the young man with blue hair made friends with him a few years before and occasionally they met to train together. Haruna stood in jars in front of the boy.

“You’re coming right now with me and the others.”

And grabbing the pink-haired boy despite his protests, she led him towards the group of young people. Shindou froze for a moment, then shrugged and followed, alongside Kidou, who was once again showed a mocking smile.

When they reached the young people, they turned to the teenagers. There were six, plus the two sibblings. The facial expression of each one of them was a poem when they saw them, except for Tsunami who smiled broadly at the boys and came over to greet them with a shoulder squeeze.

“Man! If it's Shindou and Kirino, how long has it been since we've seen each other! he?”

Tsunami had played several games against them on behalf of Inazuma Legend Japan, just like the others except for Touko, and although the boys' relationship was not too intimate with any of them, somehow they felt somewhat uneasy that he distinguished Kirino so easily, since he was the most clueless member of his team, except for Endou. 

"I see you differently, Kirino," smiled a boy with long dark brown hair in a ponytail, white skin and even whiter teeth, with a smile so mocking that he could hardly contain it. “Maybe it's the hairstyle?”

"Fudou, leave him alone" Kidou threatened.

“Or what?” The brunette raised an eyebrow. “Will you punish me?”

There was a moment of silence, the young men exchanged glances with each other, then looked at Fudou and he blushed as he read beyond their expressions.

“Don't misunderstand my words!” but it was late, the only ones who hadn't misunderstood him were Kirino, Shindou and Tsunami “I didn't mean...!” He snorted and turned to Kidou. "I'm not the one who is dressed in a ridiculous way.”

Tsunami raised an eyebrow in surprise.

“Kirino is not dressed ridiculously, she is beautiful, she is the most beautiful girl I have seen all night, except for you, Touko” the boy defended innocently, making the appellee turn as red as someone's hair of those present and to fully regret having gone there.

Again they all exchanged glances with each other, a boy with blue hair and pixie look called Kogure started to laugh out loud, Fudou and Touko joined him, Kidou smirked again, the redhead of the group sighed with resignation and Haruna opened her mouth stunned. Tsunami didn’t understand what was happening, he knew that his fashion sense was not the best, but Kirino was spectacular. 

Meanwhile, the pink-haired teenager, totally humiliated looked at his feet, and Shindou scratched his head not knowing what to say. I should defend him but… but how could he do it without humiliating him further?

"Tsunami ..." muttered a boy with green hair gathered in an elegant bun and dark skin, also very funny. “You know Kirino is... a boy, right?”

It was Tsunami's turn to blush, his face seemed to be able to fry an egg, it was clear that he didn’t know. For that reason, he had no difficulty recognizing the defender.

“What!?”

"Well, he’s a boy" the green-haired man replied again.

“Oh ... I ... I ... Are you kidding me?” He looked at Kirino as if he saw him with new eyes, he wasn’t able to imagine that. “Have you been ... have you been a boy all this time?”

“Y-yes …” Kirino kept his face on fire, he wished the boy didn't scream so much, he was making other people look at them.

Tsunami was completely embarrassed, that was a real blunder, he ruffled his hair.

"And the skinny four-eyed that has casserole hair?" Tsunami suddenly asked.

"Hayami?... Boy too" Kidou replied with a smile.

Tsunami snorted, he was very embarrased.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!


	14. I'm listening here!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, good day to everyone! I hope you're fine! Today new chapter, as every day :D

Shindou took a breath, it was time to intervene.

“Kirino is doing me a very big favor by being my partner. Please don't laugh at him.”

Kirino's blue eyes turned to Shindou with a homicidal expression, if they all burst out laughing already! Seeing the boy's serene and serious face, he turned again with a grimace of displeasure. 

His worst nightmares were coming true, but… hey, what did it matter if he couldn't appear in public again? What did it matter that they planned that so he would not be recognized but absolutely everyone did it? Well, maybe not all of them, maybe it was true that the rich and important people did not suspect anything, but… He breathed, reminding himself why he did that: for Shindou and his future.

“Of course! The buddy is a real macho man, very manly, only super men would do something like that without shame" Tsunami replied, raising his thumb, ready to repair the disaster that he caused by himself. 

But it didn't help. Kogure and Fudou burst out laughing again and Touko had to cover her mouth with her hands. 

Shindou looked at Tsunami with his mouth slightly open, what was that pink-haired young man doing in such a refined place when he didn't even know how to speak properly? Touko understood the teenager's gaze and stepped forward.

"Tsunami comes as my partner" she replied with a wink.

“Are you dating?” Shindou was surprised, unable to stop the impertinent question from coming out of his mouth, realizing he tried to apologize but none of them seemed angry.

“What?” Touko laughed and waved a hand like she was scaring a fly away. “Not at all, but my girlfriend couldn’t come with me and I had to find someone to not come alone.”

“Girlfriend?”

"Then she asked Endou" Tatsuya smiled, the red-haired boy wiping his glasses.

“Endou?”

"Yes, but he also rejected her" Kogure laughed.

“He didn’t” Touko blushed, puffing out her cheeks. “Natsumi did, she was the one who didn't let him come with me.”

"It was obvious that Endou was going to come with Natsumi," Haruna interrupted. “They aren’t married for nothing.”

Several eyes went blank without either of the teens understanding, so the green-haired man named Midorikawa whispered into the pink haired boy's ear.

“Natsumi and Endou are married on business. Neither of them is really in love and they are waiting for the moment to divorce and go with their real sweethearts. But for now they have to pretend for the good of the Raimon Company.”

“Then I was your third option?” Tsunami asked, playing the wounded man.

"Hey ... yes" Touko smiled with a drop of cold sweat running down the nape of her neck, he was actually the sixth but they didn't have to know.

Kirino looked at the young people and smiled slightly. Somehow he noticed that there were very strong bonds between them and that made him feel warm and calm.

“Who are your partners?” Shindou asked looking at the rest of the men, one of them would surely go with Haruna, but ... and the others?

"I'm going with Haruna" Kogure replied quickly, afraid of being mixed up with the " _ gay group _ ", as he called the others, then he continued to make himself interesting. “Not that I wanted to come, but she asked me so many times.”

“I remind you, Yuuya, that you asked me tearfully to invite you to this party!”

Kogure stuck out his tongue at Haruna who made the same gesture, both with red cheeks. They were too embarrassed to be honest with each other.

"I'm going with Tatsuya" Midorikawa smiled, interrupting the discussion that started to take place between Haruna and Kogure and making them look at him.

"It couldn't be any other way," Tatsuya laughed, ruffling his hair and taking him by the waist. “You are my great lov…”

Midorikawa blushed slightly and covered his mouth so that he didn’t finish that word in front of so many people. The two teenagers were left with their mouths open, and Kirino, who knew something through Kariya although he never believed it, turned pretty red at that, feeling a bit of jealousy, He also wanted to be able to go with a suit and that Shindou hold him by his waist like this and tell him nice things! Like he was his great love!

The focus then passed to Kidou and Fudou, would they also go together? Would they be dating? Did their teasing actually mask something else?

"Hey, don't look at me like that, don't put me in the same bag as the two of them," Fudou growled as he watched Shindou and Kirino watch them. “I only come because this place is perfect to fill the belly and be able to make a fool of Kidou in front of so many important people.”

“Then you do go together?” Shindou could not believe it, his coach, so elegant (leaving aside the glasses) so smart, so professional ... with that troublemaker guy?.

"Uh ..."

"Yes, we are going together as friends" Kidou sighed, although he, deep down, wished they were something more, then turned to Fudou, putting his hand on his shoulder. “You better not even try to do anything weird or I'll personally make sure you’ll be fired from your new job, how long have you been? Three months?”

“Tsk,” Fudou shrugged with a superior smile “you would do me a favor, it's very boring, I was thinking about changing jobs.”

“Really, buddy?” Tsunami was surprised, putting his arm around his shoulder. “You told me that before you were very happy because they pay you well and you work little.”

Fudou reddened and let out a growl that sounded like "Thank you very much, Tsunami," as everyone laughed.

“And you are not ashamed to go with a man to such a party?” Shindou asked again, going to the question he really wanted to ask, addressing Tatsuya and Kidou, Kirino who was also laughing suddenly fell silent and looked at him askance, was that really so bad?. Was it so bad to go with him?

Tatsuya winked at him and in response brought Midorikawa closer and kissed him on the cheek.

“They can talk about us as much as they want, surely the things they say are true.”

Kirino covered his mouth embarrassed, oh how he wished he could have that confidence too!

Shindou was shocked, but none of the others seemed surprised. They saw the couple kiss each other's lips many times and were already used to it. 

Some of them had even encountered them in… more compromising situations. Tsunami would not easily forget that time during one of the last soccer championships that entered Tatsuya's room without asking, a bad habit that changed from that day on, to borrow a mosquito repellent roll that the boy had.

Shindou then turned to Kidou, his last stronghold, the fortress he hoped would not have been knocked down ...

“I honestly don’t care what people say about me. It's not like I’ve ever cared about other opinions.”

"Sure, otherwise you wouldn't be wearing those glasses" Fudou mocked.

"In my brother case, it is worse that he is Fudou by himself than that he is a boy" said Haruna, who from time to time also liked to mess with the one who one day knew would be her brother-in-law.

"True" they all replied, except for the brunette that opened its mouth indignantly.

“Hey! I'm listening here!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked it! Thanks for reading.


	15. Are you having a good time?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! We're half in the story. Thank you so much for reading!

The group of young adults talked happily and shared some of their adventures to the two delighted teenagers.

"But kappas do not exist" said Shindou flatly when Tatsuya and Kogure finished counting the encounter with those two creatures during their first Football Frontier International.

Tatsuya smiled, he once thought the same and had even humiliated, if it could be called that, Endou in public for believing in them and saying that he saw one. Until, of course, they found it themselves.

"Who knows" he replied politely, not wanting to go against anyone's beliefs.

"Well, I know what I saw" Kogure growled, folding his arms.

Shindou framed his eyebrows, convinced that the two boys mistook someone very ugly for a Kappa. 

Kirino's cell phone vibrated a couple of times from inside his bag indicating that he received a message. The boy wondering who it would be because he was not communicating much on his cell phone, took it out while the young people continued talking. It was a message with a photo, when Kirino opened it he gave an exclamation of surprise and his mobile phone slipped, falling to the ground, although fortunately before it hit Kidou could grab it and returned it without asking anything. Shindou instead did feel the extent of curiosity.

“What happens?” he asked, trying to look at Kirino's screen and getting a little annoyed when he stopped him from doing so.

"Nothing, nothing" Kirino lied too falsely, he did not want to explain.

Shindou frowned, what was Kirino hiding from him? Making him disinterested in the subject, he left room for the pink-haired boy who sighed and looked at the message again.

"Guess who's not single anymore!" And next to that short message was a selfie of Ichino and Aoyama, very badly taken, in which Ichino had the arm with which he did not hold the mobile passed by Aoyama's shoulders and Aoyama was hugging him. They both gazed merrily at the camera.

Kirino grunted without realizing that Shindou also saw the photo behind him, although as he did not read the message he did not understand the particular, why had Kirino hidden something so stupid from him? He must be paranoid.

The pink-haired boy instead felt as if someone hit him all over the head with a frying pan. After a moment's musing he turned to Shindou whom he saw talking to coach Kidou. This was humiliating. He didn’t dare to tell Shindou how he really felt, neither about the Party nor about him, and he ended up in such a disgraceful way and then saw that everyone was capable of dealing with their fears. He could also have gone as a friend if he wouldn’t be carried away by jealousy and stupidity! 

In any case, he was very happy for Ichino and Aoyama, neither of them ever told him anything about the feelings they had towards each other, but for Kirino it was clear as the water that they felt something, and from time to time he also teased them about that. What a beautiful couple they made, how brave they were. However, he with Shindou ... He was so terrified to say anything to him when Shindou seemed quite upset at any hint of homosexuality …

Two of the young men saw that Kirino seemed on the verge of an emotional collapse, both decided to approach to cheer him up. One of them was faster and made the second one stay in the rear. He didn’t think that the former would be very good at cheering and it would be short.

"Nice city Paris" the brown-haired boy smiled at Kirino with a sharp expression and a strange sparkle in his eyes.

“P-pardon?” Kirino murmured, suddenly pulling himself up and out of his thoughts.

The brunette boy had several snacks in his mouth and Kirino did not understand what he answered, Kirino made a face of disgust and Fudou swallowed to repeat what he said.

“I will also go with you to Paris.”

That revelation made Kirino's mouth drop, in an expression of utter puzzlement. 

“Why!?”

Fudou nodded, very amused, Kirino's reaction lived up to his expectations. 

"I found out that you asked Kidou to tutor you on the journey. At first we didn't know what you were up to, although now… ” Fudou raised his eyebrows mockingly making Kirino clench his fists.

Indeed, the two teenagers thought Kidou would be a good companion because he had money and was responsible. When they asked him, thinking that he was going to ask them a thousand things, he only raised a little eyebrow and accepted with an "ok".

"The four of us will go, it will be a lot of fun" said the brunette, putting more food in his mouth.

"Yes... sure," sighed Kirino who was not at all convinced of this and causing Fudou to laugh out loud.

"You'll thank me when I take it off you and you can walk like two lovebirds" he whispered in his ear, making Kirino feel a chill and blush.

Then he clapped him on the back and went to tease Kidou, hugging him from behind to throw him to the ground, without much success and in the face of Haruna's agony, why didn't they get married at once?

But Shindou who had come to listen to what Fudou was saying to Kirino approached them with exasperation.

“Are you going with us to Paris?” That was horrible, and Fudou's turquoise eyes flashed with mischief.

“That's right, young Shindou. Do you think I was going to leave you alone with Kidou through those strange European streets? Nope. I will be your hero when the Lord Four Eyes will lose you and I appear to return you safely to any known place.”

Kirino snorted, greatly doubting that Fudou would ever become his hero, on the other hand Shindou noticed that this boy made him strangely nervous and preferred to keep him away from his life. His thoughts were interrupted by Kidou's strong voice.

“You've never been to Paris, Fudou. It will be much easier for you to be lost if you separate from me.”

Fudou's eyes narrowed and then he approached him, putting his arm around his shoulders.

"Then I will not part from your side, Kidou-kun" he replied in a mellow voice in his ear.

A smile appeared on the strategist's lips and he caught Fudou by the waist, drawing him to his body and whispering something in his ear that no one but the brunette was able to hear, while his friends looked at them with amusement and Haruna took a quick photo of them. Sending it to Sakuma, Genda, Fudou's mother, Aki, Fuyuka…

Shindou backed away from that with an indecipherable expression, what were they about!? Kidou began to argue with Fudou after he put his hand on his face trying to get loose and called him degenerate, none of them seriously argued but the dreadlocks boy had felt a leap in his heart, and the need to kiss him, not being able to do it and not knowing how to react in any other way.

A hand took Kirino's back, who was staring at the two strategists, was that what the adults called sexual tension? Interesting! He turned surprised to notice the contact and saw Midorikawa who guided him to a place a little more alone and began to put food on a plate.

“You've barely eaten, Kirino.”

"I ... I'm not very hungry" the pink-haired boy lied, but the green-haired man smiled and handed him the plate he just masterfully filled.

“You know, Kariya was about to come too.”

The plate trembled in Kirino's hands but Midorikawa hurriedly put his on top to hold it. The pink haired boy noticed that his hands were very warm and full of kindness, causing him to blush a little. That young man always gave that motherly feeling to Kirino, and although they had never spoken much, they saw him on the rare occasions when he went to visit Kariya at the orphanage where he lived with the others. On more than one occasion, the teenagers ended up playing soccer with Midorikawa, Tatsuya, Hiroto, Nagumo, Suzuno, Saginuma, Reina and some other friend of theirs.

“I’m sure if he had known that you and Shindou were coming he would have come too.”

“What I would have needed!” Kirino moaned making Midorikawa smile.

"He told us that he didn't want to come because he would be very bored, that this type of event was not for a boy like him." He looked intently at Kirino. “Are you having a good time?”

Kirino opened his mouth, it was the first time that question was asked in a long time. His eyes shone sadly and Midorikawa put his hand on his shoulder for support.

“Kariya speaks highly of you, you know? I always wanted to be able to talk to you more than we did the times we have met so far. You are a very nice boy.”

“Kariya speaks well of me? If he behaves horrible with me!”

“Oh well. He may have a hard time being honest with his feelings, but he's a good boy.”

The pink haired boy snorted and the other boy smiled at him tenderly.

“When he met you he had a very strong crush on you.”

Kirino jumped. His face turned totally red, that Kariya ... that Kariya ... What a shame!

“W-what??”

“And since he is so bad at being honest with himself he decided to start annoying you to overcome the crush” Midorikawa laughed as if that was the most tender thing in the world.

"So… does Kariya like me?" Kirino asked who couldn't believe it, and he thought Shindou was stupid because he didn't realize that he was in love with him?

“He liked you, but don’t worry he likes other person now. One day he came home very sad, he said he decided to let it go because you only had eyes for Shind …”

“For football!” Kirino shouted very loudly, interrupting the green-haired man, since behind Midorikawa's back the wavy-haired boy was approaching to be with his partner again and was listening to their conversation.

The young man turned and opened his eyes a little, then laughed.

“Football has the ability to unite hearts, Endou has always said it.”

Midorikawa's black eyes traveled through time, a reflection that looked like sadness appeared in them. He really missed that time. An easier time, a lighter time. Of course, each had their own stories and problems, but they were a very close team. Carefree and free, with strong bonds that they believed to be unbreakable. 

He came back to reality when Kirino, worried that the man suddenly stopped, touched his arm. Shindou was also watching him.

“Forgive me, guys. You bring me many memories …” Midorikawa smiled recovering and said to Kirino “I hope you give me a dance when the room opens.”


	16. Shall we dance?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Today new chapter. I really like this and next one, it was funny describing how everyone was dancing. I hope you'll like it too!

It was a long time until they opened the Ballroom, just as Midorikawa predicted. The lights in that room were dim but of many colors, there was a stage where a small orchestra was placed. And a beautiful black piano with no one sitting at it. Shindou was very interested in that piano but he overcame his desire to go see it. 

He knew he wasn't taking much care of Kirino yet. The boy spent time talking to the rest of the young people, but each time they tried to talk to each other there was a very tense atmosphere and none of them knew what to say.

Shindou was aware that as the night passed he was in a worse mood, what he didn’t fully understand was why. He only knew that part of it was because he felt like a jerk for forcing Kirino dressed in that way and discovering that even his parents expected him to invite a normal Kirino. He forced Kirino to face immense humiliation, all because he was a coward who wasn’t able to think of his friend instead of "what would they say" if they saw him with a boy. However, was it just for that? Maybe yes, he wasn't sure. He didn't know, but it didn't help him in his humor to see him talking to others either.

“Shall we dance?”, Midorikawa held out a hand to Tatsuya who took it with a glowing face and they both walked away to dance well clutching each other.

Encouraged by this, the rest of the young group also went to the dance floor. Around there were many chairs, for those who just wanted to listen to the music or for those who wanted to rest. Shindou immediately went to a chair and sat down, just thinking about dancing with Kirino, holding on like Tatsuya and Midorikawa accelerated his pulse. He was not one of those.

Kirino looked at the decision with which Shindou took a seat and noticed that his heart was oppressed, had he really hoped that he would take him out to dance? In the center of the track, Fudou dragged Kidou in his dance, and Kirino was surprised to see that the brunette was trying to grab his ass. Which made Kidou slap him.

"Don't you feel like dancing, Shindou?", Kirino asked sadly.

"No…", Shindou muttered without looking at him, but getting even more nervous.

The pink-haired boy's sigh made him finally turn his head to see Kirino sitting next to him with an expression of great sadness. That caused him a momentary shock, did Kirino want to dance with him? He swallowed, well ... even if it wasn't one of those ... maybe, maybe they could dance a little.

“Kirino”, the boy looked up and his light blue eyes were like a blow to the other teenager, “do you want to da...“

But he couldn’t end because at that moment the host of that party approached them.

"Takuto, I've been looking for you.", Shindou looked at him somewhat annoyed because he interrupted him, “I heard that you are a prodigy at the piano.”

"I wouldn't say that much ...", Shindou excused himself, embarrassed.

“Don't be modest, Shindou. You play like an angel”, said Kirino, who loved to hear his friend, to the point that he considered it one of his own hobbies.

Shindou muttered something even more embarrassed but was not understood clearly.

“Would you play us something, Takuto? We don’t have a pianist and it would be an honor to listen to you.”

The boys' eyes widened. Kirino's glance at the host would have served to bury him underground, but the man did not notice.

"I don't think it's a good idea", Shindou smiled.

But the man did not give up and in the end took the boy to the Piano, leaving Kirino sitting alone and disappointed. 

He closed his hands on his knees and lowered his face with tears in his eyes. He didn’t notice someone he knew sitting next to him and holding out a handkerchief until a voice said to him.

“Are you going to take it or what?”

Kirino jumped, scared and saw Fudou looking at him very seriously, he even seemed angry. This was even more embarrassing. Kirino took the handkerchief with a trembling of hands and the brunette left with a groan when seeing that another of them approached. In addition, he just saw Tsunami and Touko dancing roughly and he wanted to join the chaos and if he could push someone, even better.

Tatsuya and Midorikawa stopped dancing when they saw the host approach the two teenagers, and they saw the succession of events. Midorikawa gasped in surprise, looked at his partner who nodded, and headed back to Kirino.

“Would you give me this dance?”, he asked gallantly, holding out his hand as if it were a prince from a fairy tale. 

Kidou approached Tatsuya and they exchanged a few words with a disapproving expression, then looked at Shindou who sat at the piano and started to play a beautiful melody that only made the pink haired boy sadder.

Kirino shook his head, still in tears, but Midorikawa was not going to let him cry. He knew from experience what it felt like to be left behind and Kirino had no need to experience that. He grabbed him by the hand and pulled him down, causing the boy to fall onto his body. 

Midorikawa smiled and hugged him, then led him to dance.

“I apologize if I bother you with the touch.”

And with that said he took him by the waist and by the hand and began to lead him all over the track.

“Midorikawa is a wonderful dancer, what an envy!”, Kogure muttered suddenly seeing the boy dancing with a grace that seemed to have its own light.

“Well, you could try a little more yourself too, Yuuya!” Haruna replied to him, he just stepped on her.

Kirino was surprised, when he started dancing with Midorikawa all the sadness he felt disappeared and in the end his lips curved into a smile. The green-haired man was so kind, so attentive... For a moment Kirino thought that Tatsuya was very lucky to have such a partner, hopefully Shindou ... but he forced himself to remove those thoughts from his head.

"Shindou plays the piano very well", Midorikawa whispered as the boy finished the first song.

"Yes", admitted Kirino, looking at him briefly, he was focused on the piano and put on that face that he loved so much to see. His light blue eyes softened a little and Midorikawa smiled.

They kept dancing when the next song started. Fudou also approached Tatsuya who was watching Midorikawa fascinated. The brunette patted him on the back and the redhead turned to him.

“Little Ran-chan is going to steal your boyfriend.”

A wide smile appeared on Tatsuya's mouth.

“At least I have a boyfriend. Not like you.”

Tatsuya eyes glanced at Kidou and then returned to Fudou who blushed, gasped without saying anything, and walked away annoyed. That night his jokes were not going very well, was he losing shape? Surely it was Kidou's fault, it was always Kidou's fault.

"It shows that you like Shindou a lot", Midorikawa said to Kirino when the next song ended as well, freezing his blood.

"We-we're just friends", said the pink-haired boy with conviction.

"Don’t you want to be something more?"

Kirino looked up, looking back at Shindou, his cheeks colored, of course he wanted to.

“Like... super best friends?”, Kirino said that to deflect the subject, but Midorikawa laughed out loud at his surprise.

“Excuse me, Kirino. It's just that Endou said once that same thing and you've reminded me a lot of him at this moment”, Midorikawa kept laughing at that memory.

Kirino widened his eyes in fear, to be compared to Endou was the worst they could tell him that night.

“I'm afraid it's white and bottled. I was in your situation once too, you know? He was my best friend, I was very afraid that he would hate me if I told him how I felt about him.”

“Eh? Your best friend?” Kirino looked at Tatsuya in the distance, and when he noticed that he was looking at him, although he did not know what they were talking about, he waved at him.

"As you can see everything went well," laughed the green-haired man.

“How was it? How did you declare to him?”

Midorikawa tilted his head, blushing.

“It was a summer night, we were both alone watching the stars at the soccer convention, it was something we liked a lot and we still like it. Our hands met…”, Midorikawa continued to blush. “Then he sat up and looked at me with a smile so very sweet ... He told me that all the beauty in the universe could not be compared to me and he kissed me.”

Kirino opened his mouth, with the cheeks equally red, that sounded very romantic and for a moment he imagined that scene being the protagonists Shindou and him.

"But then you were not the one who ..."

"The one who does not risk does not win, Kirino," Midorikawa interrupted, not wanting to hear that he wasn’t the one who had the courage to confess.

Suddenly someone shoved Midorikawa and grabbed Kirino by the hips with great force.

“I’m robbing Kirino for a while.”

The pink haired boy watched how Fudou flew him away with such ease that for a moment he felt enormously vulnerable.

“Fudou!” the green-haired man protested. “It is unfortunate when the one who has to take care of the chickens eats them!”

“What chickens!? Take some time with your boyfriend and don't monopolize our star guest.”

Kirino tried to get away from Fudou, but he had a firm grip on him. His hand, his touch, was so different from Midorikawa that was extremely delicate. The pink haired boy did not know how to describe it, but noticed that he suddenly fell squarely into Fudou's aura. It was as if the young man emanated a force of great gravitational attraction and he was a poor asteroid that danced around him wanting to approach the nucleus of that immense force. Kirino's heart began to shoot, very nervous. Fudou danced determined, confident, provocative, and dominant.

“Come on, take it easy. I do not bite. At least, not you.”, Fudou winked at him and Kirino saw the brunette’s turquoise eyes turning to Kidou for a moment.

They danced for a while, Fudou steered him safely across the dance floor, and Kirino was surprised to find that he was enjoying it.

"It is more fun dancing with you than with the brute Tsunami," Fudou murmured suddenly. “Before, he has slapped me in the mouth.”

Kirino laughed at that and Fudou watched him silently, that laugh was not offensive, he could see the boy relaxed and that was very nice, normally everyone was more tense when they were with him. It was nice for a change that someone would open up to him like that. He had only experienced that with a couple of people.

"If you bother, I will slap you too," Kirino joked, making Fudou smile at him from the heart.

“Hey, hey. Let's have the trip ... I say the dance in peace. “

They kept dancing until Kirino couldn't help but ask him.

“Have you been to France before?”

“For what? I have not lost anything out there, if I want to go eat French food I have Kidou invite me and end the matter.”

“And then why are you coming with us?”, Kirino thought Fudou was blushing, but he couldn't be sure, however, he couldn't help but comment, with a big smile. “Is that perhaps... do you want to be with Kidou alone in the City of Love?”

“Hey! That I was treating you with great courtesy.”

“Sure.”

Fudou's eyes shot a wicked, mocking gleam, and he made Kirino make a very graceful turn and then pull him back, holding on to his waist and bringing his face close to his to intimidate, while ending the music with incredible synchronicity.

Just then it was heard how someone banged on all the piano keys at once making a horrible sound which many people had to cover their ears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading!


	17. Do you want to dance with me too?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Today one of my favourite chapters, I loved describing everyone dance style and I hope you'll like too!! Also it's the start of some drama.

Shindou played the melodies that the host asked him for, that was the last one. He was looking forward to finishing and being able to get back to Kirino. Surely he was sitting listening to the music with his eyes closed and that beautiful smile that made him while listening. He loved to see that smile, he loved Kirino to hear him. Maybe that was one of the reasons he was trying so hard at piano.

When he finished he turned around expecting to see him smile, but what he saw made him jump up, letting his weight drop on the keys that creaked throughout the room.

Fudou had Kirino caught by the waist and thrown back, their faces too close together for the pianist's taste. He closed his fists, he was going to go down and give thart young man a good punch in the face, sure he was going to do that.

But he didn't do it, first because he wasn't that kind of violent person and second because the host approached him again and asked him to play even more melodies. Desperate Shindou told him he didn't want to, but when the man left he had a lot of music sheets and tears in his eyes again. 

Why was that happening to him? Why couldn't he firmly refuse? Why couldn't he go dancing with Kirino? He felt in a very bad mood because Kirino decided to go dancing with "that person" instead of waiting for him. A voice in his head told him that this wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t left him alone, and that only made him more angry.

Without being able to avoid it, he began to play a melody, a melody that no one endorsed because they didn’t know it. It was sad music, even with dark tones. On the dance floor some people felt a chill.

"Your boyfriend is the joy of the garden", murmured Fudou releasing the grip of sweaty Kirino.

"He is not my boyfriend", he replied, only catching his breath and waiting for his heart to normalize.

Why had he liked it so much? Was he a masochist? He shook his head quickly. However when Fudou drawn him in that ending... He covered his face with his hands. Wishing he would have been Shindou, he would have completely melted. If he would have been Shindou he would have kissed him.

Fudou observed, laughing to himself, the pink-haired boy's reactions, and when he considered that he had given Kirino enough peace, Fudou took him by the waist again and forced him to continue dancing, looking occasionally at Kidou with a grin.

"That jerk", growled the boy in green glasses who wasn't dancing at the time because he wasn't motivated to dance much either.

“Kidou! Guys!” Endou approached them and gave a big hug to everyone, “Oh! Fudou is dancing with Kirino's cousin, I'm going too!”

Everyone present laughed while Endou who didn’t notice approached the two dancers. How innocent Endou was.

Endou's appearance was like a whirlwind, he took the partner away from Fudou screaming happily and made the young man leave muttering insults because he stepped on him twice when trying to grab Kirino.

“Are you having a good time?”, Endou smiled at Kirino, not knowing who he really was. “Do you like football? Football is great! Your cousin plays on my team, you know? Sure you do because of course he's your cousin. He is very good at playing, I'm glad I can count on him. Football is great, isn’t it? Do you play football?”

Kirino who was trying to keep up with Endou could barely open his mouth, how different he was from Midorikawa and Fudou! Endou was very chaotic, he didn't know how to direct and he often stepped on or tripped. He exuded energy and joy from all the pores in his skin and the touch of his hands was like a child, so innocent, so generous.

"Coach Endou ... I ..." Kirino looked at him, should he? He believed that because Endou knew it, it could not be worse, and he did not want him to be the only one who did not find out, “I am Kirino Ranmaru.”

Endou stopped abruptly and Kirino bumped into him, he seemed too shocked to respond. His face was red, he was staring wide-eyed at Kirino mumbling something.

“A-are you okay, coach Endou?”

The brown-haired man was slow to respond, he was totally embarrassed.

“Sorry for not recognizing you, Kirino. I am ... I am the worst. I thought I knew my boys well and ... I'm sorry if I offended you, Kirino. I …”

Kirino grabbed Endou's hand, interrupting him, and smiled at him, with a slight shake of his head. Very surprised that Endou seemed so affected.

“There’s no problem. Is it okay if we keep dancing, coach Endou?”

“Sure! But just call me Endou for today.”

“Okay.”

Endou regained his energy again, and in a show of enthusiasm grabbed Kirino by the hips and lifted him up, causing him to believe that he was going to die. Then they kept dancing all that song. When they finished Tatsuya approached to ask Kirino for a dance, Endou said goodbye with a wink.

"I hope Shindou pays you well", and he went dancing with Kidou at Fudou's protests, who was stealed his dance partner the second time.

Tatsuya took Kirino in such a professional way that for a moment he felt like a movie star and that all the lights shone for them. Again he discovered that what the man transmited had nothing to do with the others. Tatsuya was immaculate, extremely elegant, and guide Kirino like velvet. He brought confidence, resolution and something that Kirino, despite not being able to define it well, thought that was what made Midorikawa so in love with him. The pink haired boy couldn’t have imagined that someone could be so extremely delicate, even if Midorikawa was extremely too. The difference was that while the green-haired man conveyed a feeling of sweetness, the red-haired man transmitted passion for life.

After dancing with Tatsuya, Touko came up to ask him to dance. She was energy, joy, determination, and strength. Kirino felt very fortunate to be able to dance with her, whom he greatly admired. The girl was a very good dancer, but he could tell she liked being in charge in those situations.

After her, Haruna approached Kirino, she was very tender but somewhat careless and allowed herself to be guided in the dance. While dancing with her teacher Kirino felt as if he were a small child again, as if all the innocence of his childhood were reborn in his heart and he could not help but hum along with her the melody that Shindou played at those moments.

When he finished, Kogure approached him, who asked him for a dance quite blushed. Kirino had his reluctance at first, but was surprised to dance with him. Despite the fact that he stumbled a few times because he didn’t know how to coordinate his body very well in the dance, Kogure took him as if he were a fragile object that had to be protected at all costs. He conveyed a protective air that reminded Kirino of his father and during that time he felt that nothing bad could happen to him. He even leaned against his chest at Kogure's embarrassment.

Then Tsunami approached, just like Endou, Tsunami had a fire burning inside, but his grip was not so innocent, in fact it was just the opposite. In spite of everything, he did not set the pace, but let the teenager take it, adjusting himself to him. Kirino couldn't help but feel that Tsunami was one of those people who flowed through life and adapted to any situation, while relaxing and laughing. Occasionally, Tsunami would fly him up. 

Then Natsumi appeared, and to Kirino's surprise, because the girl had hardly ever spoken to him, she asked him to dance. She showed control, perfection and intensity that surprised the pink-haired, she was action and resolution. When he said goodbye to grab Endou again, he was dismissed with a kiss on the cheek that left the pink-haired red, it was the first time in his life that a girl made him blush.

The last one to get him to dance was Kidou, who did it quite on purpose, mainly because he didn't want to dance. But seeing that he was the only one, besides Shindou, who didn’t accompanied Kirino at a dance, he felt the pressure of his friends' eyes and snorted.

“Do you want to dance with me too? “

“Of course.”

Kirino smiled heartily at him, somehow as he went dancing with each one of them he became more and more happy, taking all the good things from each one of them. He could honestly say that he was enjoying the evening, even though the weight of Shindou's absence was still lodged deep in his heart. Kidou took a breath, well, he thought Kirino would say no.

Kidou took him by the waist and by the hand preparing for the start of the dance and Kirino felt something totally different again. Kidou, like Tatsuya, exuded a much more serious and professional air, but he didn’t have the delicacy of the redhead, not at all. His grip was stiff even though his steps were impeccable. There was a lot of mystery in his touch, like a half-open door through which a beam of light poured in. A peeked glance ... Kirino felt a great intrigue and somehow believed that this made him enormously attractive. 

When the song ended and Kidou did his job, he left the boy who thanked him for the dance. Kidou hoped he could escape and sit down, but Fudou and Tsunami each caught him by one arm and dragged him back onto the track.

Kirino laughed as he looked at them. Tatsuya and Midorikawa were dancing together again, as were Haruna and Kogure. Touko was talking to another young woman whom she must met. He was alone. Then he noticed that his feet hurt a lot, while he danced he didn’t realized it, but when he stopped and became aware of his body again he did. It was like he was walking on a lego rug. Since everyone was busy, he went to sit without much concern and took off one of the sandals rubbing his foot. Boy did it hurt! What kind of instrument of torture were those shoes?

“Kirino!”

The boy jumped when he heard Shindou, he was so absorbed in his pain that he didn’t realized that the piano was no longer playing.

“Hi, Shindou!”, Kirino replied, very happy to see him at his side again. “Are you free yet?·

“Yes, in the end I got serious and told him that I also wanted to have fun with my friends. He wanted me to play even more!”

"That is child exploitation", laughed Kirino.

Shindou felt his heart skip a beat and at the same time a weight in his stomach. And he felt like the worst person in the world because he realized perfectly well that he was upset that Kirino was so happy without having been with him… why? 

“Have you heard me?”, Shindou asked to avoid thinking about that.

"Sure, your music always gets to touch my heart." Kirino smiled broadly at him. “You have angelic hands.”

Shindou fell silent, looking at Kirino trying to look grateful, but found that if he kept quiet the monster inside him grew stronger and began to say worse and worse things.

“Are you having a good time?”, in Shindou's eyes there was a great sadness that Kirino did not miss.

"Yes, I'm having a good time," Kirino replied softly, sitting up and taking him by the wrist, trying to cheer him up. “Now it's your turn to have a good time too, don't you think, Shindou?”

Shindou opened his eyes and looked at him, wanting to cry.

“Do you want to dance with me, Kirino?”

Kirino smiled, of course he did! That was what he was waiting for all night.

“Of course! I’d love to. But give me a moment, okay? I get hurt by the sandals and I need to rest a bit.”

"Okay" Shindou murmured more coldly than he expected and surprising Kirino, who questioned him with his eyes. Shindou didn't reply the glance, he felt horrible about many things. One of them was that it made him very angry that Kirino danced with everyone but told him to wait. 

He forced himself to push those thoughts aside, those thoughts were very harmful to both of them. He didn't want to have them, why did he have them? It never happened before... Kirino could dance with whoever he wanted, and if this made him sad, as the little voice in the back of his head said, he would have attended him as he deserved and not left him alone to go and play the piano. Besides, didn't Kirino just tell him he wanted to dance with him too? He just had to be a good boy and wait patiently.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I'm glad people are giving their support, that means a lot, thanks!


	18. Is it you, Takuto?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is shorter than others and sadder but it's a necessary one.  
> Hope you like it though!

Kirino sighed as he rested his feet. He really wanted to dance with Shindou, but he didn't think he could dance in such conditions. He wanted to dance with him in his best condition so it would be an unforgettable memory for both of them. Maybe, maybe and with the heat of the dance he could kiss Shindou, even if it was only on the cheek!

However, Providence had other plans for Kirino, while they both remained seated and Shindou tried to attend to Kirino the best he knew to make up for the time when he left him alone, a brunette girl with big orange eyes shyly approached them .

“Takuto? Is it you, Takuto?”

“Okatsu!”, Shindou exclaimed, sitting up suddenly and bowing, in front of the stunned look that Kirino was giving the girl. Who was that girl who called Shindou by his first name?

“It's been a long time, Takuto. I didn't expect to find you here ... When I saw you at the piano I could hardly believe it was you.”

"It's true." Shindou scratched the back of his neck, a little nervous. He hadn't seen each other for a long time.

Kirino had a spasm but only the girl noticed it, emanating an aura as dark as night, a very intimidating aura, which would not have to envy that of a real demon. She felt a slight chill.

“Who-who is your friend, Takuto?”

Shindou turned to Kirino and smiled at the girl.

“She's Ranko, she's cousin of my friend Kirino. Ranko, this is Okatsu, an old friend.”

The two old friends quickly struck up a casual conversation filled with laughter and warm glances. Kirino shifted his eyes from one to the other and it couldn’t be told who he was giving the ugliest expression to. 

Was it his imagination or was Shindou blushing? Damn it! But it was not Kirino's imagination. Shindou was really very flushed and nervous, Okatsu was friends with him since they were little, although they didn’t see each other for years. And seeing her so grown up made him a little disturbed. 

Not only because she was extremely beautiful but because she was identical to that girl he met when traveling to the past, who also had the same name. How strange it made him think that he was talking to one girl like another and that, of course, was already dead.

Suddenly she stopped.

“I'm interrupting you, right?”

Kirino turned to her with a face that said "yes, totally, now do you realize?". But Shindou shook his head.

“No, we weren't really doing anything. Kiri... Ranko is resting because her feet hurt from having been dancing before ... with other people”, he couldn't help saying the last, and even less could he avoid saying it with such resentment of voice. Kirino opened his mouth indignantly, what was come over Shindou?

“In that case...” Okatsu looked down coquettishly, Kirino also looked at her with the same face of indignation, “Would you want to dance with me, Takuto?”

Kirino got up to dash himself against the girl but before he could do anything Shindou already answered her.

“Of course, it will be a pleasure.”

Because… what was wrong with him dancing with someone else too? After all, Kirino didn’t mind dancing with other people. Why should he care that he danced with Okatsu?

"Shindou, weren't you going to dance with me?" Kirino sobbed with a terrible feeling of regret.

But he didn’t seem to listen to him and extended his hand to Okatsu, who took it with a smile. They walked away together and Kirino dropped into the chair, unable to believe it. Didn’t Shindou heard him? Or didn’t he want to hear him? 

All the joy that the pink-haired boy accumulated suddenly vanished. He felt extremely miserable, with a lot of heart pain. 

In a fit of rage he threw one of the sandals on the track, although of course that was a very bad idea. He would have to go look for it because otherwise he would hurt himself when walking.

He followed his gaze to Shindou and the girl, but they were lost among the people and could not find them. 

Kirino wanted to die, put a hand to his chest and made a muffled noise that came from deep in his throat.

"I think this is yours, dude" said a cheerful voice, handing him the sandal he just threw.

Kirino looked up, beginning to blur with tears, and saw Tsunami. He wiped his eyes to hide, he didn't want to collapse in front of anyone.

“Thank you.”

"You seem to have missed the best wave in the world", said the boy, putting a hand on his head. “But don't forget that a new wave comes in the end and it can be even better.”

Kirino did not understand what he was referring to.

"Look, there are times when I also feel sad or angry," the older boy began, although he suddenly stopped, "well, it's not that I get angry many times and now that I think about it, I'm not usually sad either ... But what I want to say is that sometimes we focus a lot waiting for a wave believing that it will be the best of all and we are losing the opportunity to surf many others.”

"I still don't understand" murmured Kirino, who felt quite idiotic, it wasn't really that difficult, but he just experienced an emotional blow and was not in full condition.

Tsunami snorted, he was never good with words. Not like Tachimukai, he did know how to express himself with true mastery. Not for nothing he became a teacher, how proud he was of Tachimukai!

“I mean, do something to distract yourself ... Enjoy the party ... You only have 12 years old once!”

He slapped him hard on the back that only caused him even more pain, maybe even a rib break.

“But I'm 17…”

“Eh ... And you don't have them only once too?”

Tsunami got up, barely sat down, conversation was over, it was time to take action.

“Come on, come dance with us.”

Kirino looked at his feet.

"Yes, now I will go", he lied, but Tsunami believed him and smiled widely.

“I like that!”

And he ran away, throwing himself against Kogure in a jump, to the annoyance of Kogure who was drinking something to cool off and it felt on him. 

Kirino looked around, he didn't feel like dancing, he didn't feel like anything. He would have been happier if he had simply vanished with all his pain.

He looked down, he wanted to be alone. He did not think he could hold on without breaking before the laughter of the young people with whom he was so comfortable until then. Nor did it seem fair to him to spoil the evening with his sadness and pain, he preferred that they could enjoy.

He got up and walked, surrounding the crowd, towards the garden of that place, which was accessed through a beautiful glass door.


	19. Are you already dead?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One of the things I enjoyed the most writing is the relationship between the adults and Kirino. I imagine them like big brothers to him.  
> Anyways, I hope you'll like this chapter.

It was very cold outside, and although he wore a translucent shawl in case it was cold, the shawl and not wearing anything were the same. He sighed and felt the mist of his breath condense into a whitish cloud. 

He walked for a while in silence, feeling the stinging embrace of the night on his bare skin, somehow he felt a comforting relief. His pain was cooling the same as him. He came to a bench that he considered to be far enough away and isolated, and sat down, bringing his knees to his chest and sinking his head into the gap between them. Not caring that he might get sick, not caring that a sharp pain appeared on his skin as he trembled violently.

He forced himself to think of something joyous, he forced himself to think of the young men who had brought him out to dance. He forced himself to think about Ichino's reaction when he would tell him that he danced with part of the famous Inazuma Legend Japan. He forced himself to think of Paris. But nothing served to cheer him up. Once time and again Shindou's gaze as he accepted the girl's offer crept into his thoughts. Again and again he heard his voice saying "Ranko is resting because his feet hurt from having been dancing before with other people", and then nightmare Shindou appeared and said "You’re disgusting". Why? 

A tear slid down his cheek when he found himself alone, the moon was shining in the sky and some stars flickered in the distance. He didn't want to cry, he didn't want to give that satisfaction to Shindou or the other girl.

He thought of Kariya and for a moment he felt even sadder. Maybe ... maybe ... should he do the same thing Kariya did? Maybe he should let him go... Maybe he should give up on Shindou, after all... what real chance was there of the boy corresponding to his feelings? Or even that they could still be friends after that. He believed that rather few, he believed that the most sensible thing would be to abandon the strong feelings he had towards him. Since that day, the day he met him. 

More tears rolled down his cheeks as white as a corpse's.

“I didn't know you were such an idiot” a warm jacket with a strong smell of men's perfume covered the icy body of the pink-haired boy who did not look up or say anything, although his cheeks were regaining color and his body stopped convulsing so strongly “Mmm ... are you already dead?”

But he continued without saying anything, or reacting in any other way than the involuntary response of his body when he stopped feeling the icy touch of winter.

"Surely you would have prefered it was Shindou, right? You will have to settle for me.”

Kirino pursed his lips and the young man sat next to him, putting an arm behind his back and pulling him towards his body. Kirino's light blue eyes flashed with sadness and he leaned on his shoulder, hiding his face.

"Thank you, coach Kidou," he noted the young man's scent, a mixture of perfume and his own and he liked it a lot, somehow that aroma and that heat calmed him more than the cold he had been exposed to not feeling anything.

“You can call me just Kidou tonight.”

There was a silence between them, it was a cordial silence, a calm pause. In the distance the murmur of a fountain tinkled.

“Why did you go out?” Kirino asked, his voice sounding sad and lacking in enthusiasm.

"Fudou was getting unbearable," Kidou replied, although it was not the truth.

“Does he ever stop?”

The young man laughed out loud, somewhat out of place from his companion's grim expression.

“He doesn’t, but I learned to lov…” Kidou interrupted himself and continued hurriedly “appreciate him like that.”

Kirino looked up at his coach, but Kidou kept an enigmatic expression, the pink-haired one wondered if he would ever be able to look through that half-closed door.

“He's not a bad guy really, he just plays tough” Kidou smiled at Kirino, he was surprised to see him smile so honestly, maybe someday he could see what was on the other side of that door.

"I know," he replied, making the coach raise an eyebrow because people didn't usually answer that when he made that statement.

“Why aren't you dancing with Shindou?” Kidou did not want to sin of insensitivity, but he knew that Kirino had to let off steam.

Kirino looked down, and it took him a while to muster up the courage to respond, and more without sounding incriminating towards Shindou, yes, it was best to let him go.

"He is dancing with a friend because I needed to rest for a while." Kidou said nothing, of course he already knew that because he saw them dance. “Apparently they are old friends, there is nothing wrong with them dancing, I have danced with you.”

“Of course.”

“Fuck no” exclaimed another voice, suddenly appearing behind them and making them both jump scared, that was not something that usually happened to Kidou and his lip trembled when he faced the newcomer.

“What do you think you're doing appearing like this? Who did you believe you are? Kageno?”

The newcomer, who was none other than Fudou, snorted and sat on the other side of Kirino.

“And you? You went to help the damsel in distress and left me alone!”

“You started dancing like a savage with Tsunami first, Fudou.”

“That was a long time ago!”

They both turned faces to the other side, with Kirino in the middle, who felt very uncomfortable.

“Listen, Kirino. Go and kill the girl, I will cover you and Kidou will pay us a good lawyer to get out of jail unscathed.”

“Fudou! Shut up,” Kidou ordered, still knowing he wasn't going to pay any attention to him.

“Huh! Is Mr. Kidou-kun bothered by my presence? Do you think you can give him better advice?”

"Of course I can give him better advice if yours is to commit murder."

"Well, I wouldn't have any qualms if some old friend started dancing with you..." Fudou blushed to the roots of his hair and changed the subject drastically to prevent Kidou from noticing, although he obviously already noticed. “You should declare to Shindou, Kirino.”

Kidou snorted and slapped Fudou in the head, who immediately protested.

“OK OK! I catch the hint, I'll keep quiet. See what advice the Lord First Strategist of Japan gives you.”

“First of all, don't kill anyone. It is very cumbersome to get rid of a body and it is also against the law.”

“Wow! Now that's advice.”

"I thought you said you were going to keep quiet."

Kirino hugged his legs and was staring in horror at each other, why did Kidou know that getting rid of a body was so cumbersome, why!!? Although he wasn't sure he wanted to find out.

“I was going to, but you are too irritating.”

“If I disturb you so much, you can go back inside, nobody has told you to come.”

“So this is your answer, Kidou-kun? And why don't you go, huh?”

“And why don't you two leave?” Kirino sobbed, he couldn't take it anymore. He didn’t ask for help, “I don't need help! I am perfectly fine alone in my solitude. With myself, my pain and these horrible sandals that destroy my feet and have not let me dance with Shindou.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! If you like my work you can give feedback! It's very welcomed


	20. If I was brave...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Today's chapter is one of my favourites of this story. I hope you'd like it too!

Kidou and Fudou looked at each other for a moment, then looked at Kirino and smiled at the same time. How dramatic the teens were.

"Kirino, there is nothing wrong with you feeling bad, Fudou almost always feels bad." Fudou rolled his eyes. “You can tell us what worries you.”

“It's nothing.”

"Just a girl with big eyes …”

"Fudou," Kidou growled threateningly.

“What happens now? It's the truth, isn't it?”

“Even if it's the truth you shouldn't …”

And then to the surprise, very unpleasant, of both, Kirino burst into tears. He didn't want to cry, he really didn't want to cry. What did crying solve? It did not solve anything. And he didn't want them to think he was a crybaby because it was the only thing he did that night. But the pressure on his chest increased more and more and he couldn't help it. 

Fudou was half right. The girl was not the problem, the problem was how much it hurt him that Shindou went with her. As if he wanted to punish him for having fun when he played the piano. He couldn't help but think like that, he wished he could! But the sparkle in Shindou's eyes when he looked at him saying to the girl he was resting, frightened Kirino.

"I’m… I'm so sorry," he apologized to the two stunned young men who had no idea what to do to comfort him.

Kirino could not help but continue crying for a long time, and although he believed it was useless, the pain in his chest diminished until it disappeared almost completely. Neither of the other two said anything, they just stayed by his side, Kidou hugged him more and Fudou occasionally tapped him on the head to cheer him up.

When he managed to calm down and wiped away the tears and snots with the handkerchief that Fudou had given him long before, he felt much better.

"I’m sorry for crying”

"Don't apologize," said Kidou. “Crying is natural, you shouldn't be ashamed of it.”

Kirino looked at him and thanked him with a smile, Kidou smiled back.

“Thank you.”

“Do you want to tell us something else or do you no longer need it?” asked the man in glasses anyways.

The pink-haired boy was thoughtful and did not know what to answer.

“I think ... I think I can't tell you something you don't already know.”

The adults were both silent.

“Who knows, you can try, right?” encouraged Fudou, who felt totally disoriented in the field of comforting someone. Although he was sure that he was better at the subject than Gouenji, who preferred to shoot the people who had to be encouraged.

Kirino nodded, swallowed, and said what was in his heart.

“I'm a coward.”

Kidou and Fudou opened their mouths, Fudou laughed although Kirino did not like it so much, why was he laughing at what it had cost him to say it out loud?

"Why do you think you are a coward, Kirino?" asked his coach, puzzled, punching Fudou in the ribs to shut him up.

Fudou made a strange noise and fell silent.

“If I was brave... if I was brave I would have told Shindou that I didn't want to go dressed as a girl, I don't like going like this, it's uncomfortable and it hurts me; but I didn't have the courage to believe that I could go as an equal to his side, I didn't have the courage to tell him that I wanted to go as a boy… And I haven't been able to tell him that I wanted to spend the night with him, that I really wanted to dance with him ... I have not been able to overcome the pain caused by the sandals to be by his side. I don't deserve anything ... I don't deserve …”

A punch on the bench suddenly stopped him. Fudou stood up and was trembling with fury. The reason he hadn't grabbed Kirino to shake him was because there were no clothes to grab him around the neck.

“Are you stupid or what's wrong with you? That are you not fucking brave? Do you really think you are not brave? I wish I could have half your courage! Do you think you are a coward for coming like this? How many people do you know capable of doing something like this for a friend?”

Kidou looked at Fudou, he, unlike the brunette, was calm. He sighed a little as Fudou was screaming more and more and Kirino was getting smaller in his place, scared of the young man's reaction.

Kidou put his hand to the nape of his neck and looked away. Fudou had to explode somewhere, and better that than what he wanted to do before, in this way perhaps Kirino reacted favorably, the other would not have led to anything good. Both boys observed what happened between Kirino, Shindou and that other girl. Of course they weren’t able to hear anything, but they both could read in their lips some of the words they were saying, and both understood perfectly how Shindou said “Ranko is resting because his feet hurt from having been dancing before with other people" And then he went to dance with the girl.

While it was true that he himself was outraged about this, Fudou's reaction was huge. It was a long time since he saw him so angry, and he had to grab him with all his strength and the help of others to prevent him from going after Shindou and punching him. It reminded Kidou of that time years ago when they went to high school and he had to hold him down when he wanted to hit a teacher who made fun of Kidou in front of the whole class. That incident ended with Fudou's temporary expulsion despite failing to hit the man and the class sabotaging the teacher who ended the year by leaving his job.

"Enough, Fudou," Kidou said when he considered that the boy had already vented what was necessary.

He closed his mouth and glared at him, silently. He knew that Kidou in those situations was more reasonable, had cold blood and was not altered like him.

Kirino trembled a little on the bench, but did not drop his gaze, helding Fudou's eyes without any tear coming to his. Maybe deep down, he wanted to believe what the brunette was saying. 

Neither said anything for an instant, they didn't move either. Fudou remained standing and the other two remained seated.

"I feel better, thanks," Kirino finally said.

“Do you feel better? Is that all you have to say after what I've told you?” Fudou was exasperated.

"I don't know what you're complaining about, Kirino must be the only person in the world who feels better after hearing you scream."

“The fuck?”

“Normally you only bother people.”

“WHAT!?”

The two boys returned to engage in a meaningless discussion, but this time Kirino escaped thinking about what the brunette boy ust said, after a while of reverie and return to reality to find them arguing still sighed.

“You make a good couple.”

The two of them blushed and fell silent immediately.

“Don't talk nonsense, Kirino!”

“Are you not in love?”

Fudou became so nervous with his whole back sweating that he exclaimed the first barbaric thing that occurred to him, because he could not allow Kidou to discover those feelings that were so hard to hide, he could not jeopardize his friendship with Kidou when it was the most important thing of his life.

“I prefer a banana!” He only realized the nonsense he just said when he heard himself out loud.

Kidou raised his head very offended, looking at Fudou with tight lips.

“Do you prefer a banana before me? What do you plan to do with a banana?” his voice sounded very irritated and Kirino was truly surprised to discover it.

"Huh ... Well, the banana ... with the banana ... I can eat it," Fudou said, very blushed and looking away from Kidou's most indignant gaze.

“You can eat Kidou too, right?” Kirino shrugged.

The two young men acquired a vermilion color that had nothing to envy to that summer that Kirino did not put sunscreen when on the beach. Yes, indeed Fudou could eat Kidou, and those two boys were not as innocent as they might seem. The silence that followed was the most tense Kirino had ever experienced.

"I'm going back inside." Kidou stood without looking at Fudou. “If you need anything, count on me, Kirino.”

The boy tried to return the jacket, but Kidou refused and stroked his head.

“You can return it to me when you enter too.”

Kidou walked away leaving a very red Fudou, with the burning body that dropped on the bench next to Kirino with a snort, although he no longer had the pain he felt at the beginning, he was still sad. They were silent for a while until Kirino noticed that Fudou was getting closer to him than he thought necessary.

“What are you doing?”

"You smell like Kidou," Fudou replied, looking at the jacket with a sad expression, Kirino felt very sorry for him at that moment.

“I think you need more help than me.”

“Oh no!” cried the boy. “I already went to the psychologist for many years, I don't want to go back.”

“Did you go to the psychologist?”

“Yes, apparently throwing banana peels at people is considered a symptom of mental disturbance.”

Kirino laughed for the first time in a long time, the brunette blinked but then joined him. 

Fudou confessed that he had to deal with a severe depression about his self-esteem, from which he still had consequences. Then the boys stared at the fountain in front of them.

“You love coach Kidou, right?”

Fudou turned his head, playing the important role.

"It's not something I'm going to argue with a kid like you."

Kirino smiled and patted him on the shoulder, Fudou looked at him puzzled. Once again the pink-haired boy behaved with a naturalness and openness that he did not usually find in the people around him. People who fully trusted him could be counted with one hand: Kidou, Sakuma, Genda, Endou, Someoka, Tobitaka, Tsunami ... Well, they were two hands, but even so it was not usual and even more not knowing each other so much.

“You know? I think Shindou is stupid for not enjoying this night with you.”

“Shindou is not stupid, he has only considered that his priorities were others. And I have only come with him because ..” but Kirino's voice cracked and Fudou put his arm around his shoulders to comfort him, leaving him a kiss on the head that surprised even the brunette. Kirino blushed a lot and felt his heart speed up again. 

"I still think he's stupid for leaving you alone over and over again when you've done so much for him. If you couldn't dance, he should have stayed by your side and not moved his rich ass.”

“Why do you care?” Kirino asked.

"You remind me of another idiot," Fudou sighed, ruffling his hair, and the pink-haired boy was sure he was referring to himself.

Kirino looked at Fudou for a moment, and leaned towards him, leaning on his shoulder, Fudou suffered a nervous tic but then scratched his head and continued.

"During adolescence there are many changes," he murmured. “You think you are a weirdo if you are not like the others, but which person is there who is the same as another in reality? The thing is, if you don't like the same as the others…” Fudou looked up at the sky. “You know ... girls, being in shape or not caring if you go to university or not …” 

“Didn't you go to university?” Kirino was surprised.

“Of course I went to the University! I have an Honors Degree in Physical Engineering and a Master's degree,” growled Fudou. “Anyway, what I'm want to tell is that sometimes there are boys who are attracted to other boys and don't know what to do about it …” He stopped for a moment “Among my friends there are many of those.” He laughed a little. “Almost all of my friends are actually paired with each other.”

“But not Kidou, right?”

“No…”

“Did he never be interested in anyone?”

“Huh ... no” but it was such an obvious lie that he didn't believe it himself.

“Who was Kidou interested in?” Kirino asked curiously, he couldn't say that he knew Kidou particularly well, but he had this intuition that he really liked someone, and that he was sitting next to him at the moment.

“Kidou and I... we had some intimate…” Fudou cleared his throat nervously, why was he telling this to a teenager? “..moments in the past.”

Kirino opened his mouth.

“How intimate?”

Fudou's ears turned very red.

“I can't tell you, legally you are a minor.”

Kirino covered his mouth with his hands.

“Kidou and you have ... have ... done ...?”

Fudou snorted and nodded at Kirino's stupefaction, his face even redder than the brunette.

“Why in the past?”

Fudou's turquoise eyes watered, that was the most unexpected thing of all.

“It's a long story, Kirino.”

“I like long stories.”

The brown-haired man smiled sadly and told him what had happened between them, surprising even himself because he never had the courage to tell anyone about that, the only one who knew it was Sakuma, who was another of the fundamental pillars of his life. 

Fudou told him how Kidou and he met. He told him how they grew closer over the years until they became inseparable. He told him how he realized he was in love. He told him how Kidou and he kissed the first time. He told him how Kidou had to go study to Italy. He told him supercially how their first time happened during a visit to Italy. He told him how they simply never talked about what happened. He told him how he never dared to ask and so their relationship died before it started.

Kirino listened to him in almost total silence, only broken to laugh or scream at some points in his story, and when the young man finished he decided to add something trying to make him feel better.

“You should tell Kidou how you feel, after all you've shared, it's not fair that such a beautiful love story is ruined.”

Fudou blushed altered.

“What kind of joke is that? Confession? I shouldn’t have been worried about you, can't be such a good person.”

Kirino laughed.

“A good person who throws banana peels at people?”

“I do not do it anymore! It was just… a phase,” Fudou growled.

"What a good person," Kirino continued laughing.

Fudou was upset and started tickling Kirino who was laughing heartily as he asked him to stop.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I'm glad people are liking this story, thank you so much!


	21. What else could it be?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, everyone! There're left only a few chapters more. Thanks to everyone who is reading it! If you like my work you can leave some coments, I love reading them as it encourages me to continue writing!

Shindou, meanwhile, regretted leaving Kirino alone and going to dance with Okatsu as soon as he stepped on the dance floor. What did he just do? He couldn't believe he was such a jerk, he left the boy alone again! He let himself be carried away by that monster that was inside him and that was making him spend a horrible night. Whatsmore, he left Kirino with the word in his mouth, he wanted to really hurt his friend, feeling a dark satisfaction when he took Okatsu's hand in front of him when Kirino asked if he wasn't going to dance with him. How could he be that bad!? How could he consider himself his friend? 

He tried to immediately apologize to Okatsu to go back with him.

“What is it, Takuto?” she asked as she held out her hand for him to take to dance.

“I ... I ... I don't think it's a good idea actually.”

"Nonsense, Takuto," she laughed.

“It's that I ... I shouldn't leave K ... Ranko ... alone any longer.”

Okatsu gave a loud laugh that annoyed Shindou the most, but as soon as he spoke it made the boy go white.

“That's right, Takuto. I'm sure Ranmaru is going to hate me for the rest of our lives” although she laughed a small reflection of sadness appeared in her eyes.

“What?”

“Do you really think I'm so stupid not to have recognized Ranmaru?·

Shindou felt a cold sweat running down his back, how could Okatsu who never met Kirino recognize him?

“Let's dance, Takuto. We have to talk for a while.”

And she offered her hand again, very embarrassed on that occasion Shindou took her hand, he did not bode well of that conversation.

“How did you know it was Kirino?”

“It was very simple, Takuto. It is the true power of female observation.” Okatsu winked at him but Shindou didn't seem satisfied with that answer.

“You never met Kirino.”

"Perhaps I didn’t meet in person, Takuto," Okatsu said patiently. “But I went to many of your football matches, I saw the photos you sent me and also…” she blushed a lot “I am the founder and number one member of the Ranmaru Fan Club.”

Shindou stood very surprised, dumbfounded at that revelation.

“Do you think you're the only one with a crush on him?”

“What? I don't ... but you ... But I don't …”

Shindou blushed, what was Okatsu saying? He had no crush on Kirino. That was totally out of place.

“Sure “I don’t I don’t"” moked the girl imitating the boy “In my case, I got over it a while ago,” Okatsu laughed. “But when I was in all the hype I had the room full of his posters and I talked to them ... I even kissed them” she seemed slightly embarrassed by that fact.

The boy did not think he could bear more revelations like that.

“The fault of that is yours, Takuto.”

“Huh?”

“The fault that I fell in love and that I had to let him go is yours.”

“Why?”

Okatsu looked at him and smiled mysteriously.

“If you don't know I won't tell you.”

The teenager sighed as they continued to dance, she could do whatever she wanted, didn't she wanted to tell him? Well, don't do it. He already had enough problems, he became very nervous, with a very strange feeling... Thinking that there were girls, the real ones, romantically interested in his friend disturbed him a lot. He never would have believed it was something that could happen. He knew there were girls who took an interest in him, Shindou, but the pink haired boy always managed to push them away. Would he also do the same with his own fans? What if he fell in love with one? Why did it hurt so much? Whenever he imagined his future only the two of them appeared, Kirino never had a partner. What if he started dating someone? Could they keep their friendship? Why was he so uneasy?

Okatsu remained silent for a while, letting Shindou delve into his thoughts as if she could see them clearly.

“To be so brilliant at an academic, sporting and artistic level, you are an idiot for the emotional subject, Takuto.”

Shindou was offended, no one ever called him that before.

“Do you really don't realize that you're in love with Ranmaru?”

“I'm not in love ... I don't ... what do you say!?”

"Well no, you don't realize it," Okatsu said very quietly, hurtfully.

"I know perfectly well how I feel about Kirino," Shindou replied resolutely. “We are best friends, very good best friends. What's more, we are super best friends!”

Okatsu opened his mouth, thinking, inside that Shindou was an idiot, her eyes put on an expression of having lost all hope in humanity and she rolled them.

“I'm going back to my house.”

“Hey!” This time it was Shindou who prevented the other person from leaving, grabbing her by the arm. “Why did you make that face?”

“Super best friends, Takuto? Really?”

Shindou was very embarrassed.

“Of course. What else could it be?”

The girl made a noise from deep inside her.

“Love?”

But Shindou couldn't believe that, if he was in love with Kirino he would know it. How could he not notice? Suddenly he remembered the kiss that the pink haired boy gave him asleep, he didn’t moved away, it didn’t even bothered him, on the contrary.

“Listen, Takuto. There are things you want to do with your best friends, even if they are super best friends ... Going to the movies, playing video games, burping ... I even accept that there are hugs and physical touches. And then there are other things you want to do with you love, like giving kisses, going hand by hand, more hugs, spending as much time together as possible, forming a family and having four children, a dog and a canary ...

'Why a canary?” Shindou who was very red and just wanted to buy time for his brain to react asked.

"I like canaries," replied the girl dryly.

“But I don't want to have a canary, surely Aria and Lute would eat it.”

“That's not important, Takuto! The important thing is that have to you see in which category Ranmaru is for you.”

Shindou was thoughtful, in which category was Kirino? Well, he wasn't sure, they both loved playing video games together and with other friends. Specially soccer ones that the pink-haired one had at home based on Frontier Football Internartional. Shindou loved those games, especially playing with the Little Gigants team, Roccoco was super strong and he loved throwing the Spirit Hand all the time to stop Hijikata and Fubuki's “Thunder Beast” or Toramaru's “Tiger Drive” that Ichino always threw when he played using Inazuma Japan. Although he remembered that once Kirino, who played with the Fire Dragons marked him with Afuro without using any technique and was very indignant.

Okatsu sighed, pulling Shindou out of his fantasies.

“Let's see, Takuto. What more friends do you have?”

“Well ... the whole football team, there is Sangoku, Tenma, Nishiki, Ibuki ...

“Fine, imagine that you had to kiss Sangoku.”

Shindou made an immediate disgusted face and gagged just imagining that, which he was unable to finish in his head. It was too much for him!

“What if you had to kiss Ranmaru?”

The boy raised his eyebrows for a moment, with a very relaxed expression, and without Okatsu knowing it, he remembered the kiss that Kirino gave him, it was so sweet ... Returning to reality with flushed cheeks, he saw the totally sarcastic look of the girl and was ashamed.

“What would you do if Tenma had to move to another city?”

Shindou thought again, it would be something that would leave him quite sad, although it would not be entirely unexpected because his parents traveled a lot. Obviously they would keep in touch and he would do his best to see him on a regular basis.

“What if Ranmaru moves?”

Shindou's eyes flashed with fear.

“I don't want to imagine that…”

Because in truth, thinking about separating from Kirino... They were together since they were 3 years old, from that day ... Thinking of one day without him was like imagining an empty life.

"And now I want you to think of Nishiki or Ibuki naked," Okatsu laughed.

"Never," Shindou said flatly, blushing.

“And Ranmaru?”

Shindou's face grew redder as an image of Kirino uncovered crept into his thoughts from those he was trying to push away. Not long ago he was looking at Kirino in the locker room showers and the boy, noticing his gaze, turned on him with super bright eyes, "You should shower too, Shindou, you’re smelling," he said with a smile, and he pushed Shindou in the shower with him washing his hair. What a great shame!

“Are you still having doubts, Takuto?”

Shindou looked down, then he..., then... he was in love? But why didn’t he noticed before? What a shame! He noticed Okatsu patting his shoulder comfortingly.

“I'm sure you’ll make a beautiful couple in Paris.”

“How do you know about Paris?”

“Your mother told me.”

Shindou was silent, why couldn't his mother do the same? 

“Why have I never noticed?” he groaned suddenly.

“Perhaps it has been a long time and you have got used to the feeling ... I am inclined to think about it.”

Shindou thought about it, perhaps thinking about what day he might have fallen in love. An image came to his head. He was in a playground playing with the mud making cakes when some very bad children destroyed what he had and made him cry. Then someone appeared who could not see well because of the tears, shooed away the bad children, and turned to him, Shindou’s face covered in snot. He had pink hair and was dressed in blue, smiling in a way that immediately took his breath away, reaching out to help him up off the ground. He just stole his heart.

Suddenly he felt a strong fear, a fear he never thought of. It was nice to discover that he was in love with Kirino since he had memories but ... If Kirino found out about that, he wouldn’t surely speak to him again, he would not want to see him again. A strong tremor shook his body.

"Takuto, you won't know if you don't tell him," scoffed the girl who was able to clearly follow the boy's line of thoughts due to the expressions he was putting on.

“Huh?”

“If you don't tell him how you feel, you won't know if he corresponds to you or not.”

“Of course I know, he will kill me …”

Okatsu shrugged, she did know what would happen. If Shindou declared to Kirino, he would jump to kiss him, as if she didn't see it coming. The pink haired boy loved Shindou! For that reason she decided to let the crush pass, she preferred that both boys could be happy together. 

“At least you should tried, right? I assure you that he will not kill you, for Ranmaru you are too important, you just have to discover if in the same way that he is for you.”

Shindou shook his head, doubting that it was so, although at the moment he wanted to believe it with all his might.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, have a great day!


	22. If we are together, we aren’t cold

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I liked writing this chapter, I usually don't like drama but I must say that sometimes it's funny to write. I hope you'll like too!  
> Anyways, things go better at the end.

Kirino and Fudou were still sitting in the bench talking, the brunette had brought alcohol-free drinks, because Kirino was minor and he was very careful not to touch alcohol since he once ended up drunk practically naked dancing on top of Kidou's living room table while Kidou, equally drunk, tried to remove his remaining clothes. A video was proof of this and since that day he sworn never to take a single drop of alcohol again. Unless the possible occasional toasts and the liquor chocolates that drove him crazy.

"And then this moron left me like nothing" Fudou told Kirino.

“But you threw a tomato at him.”

“It's me who doesn't like tomatos! I am totally innocent.”

“Was it also a phase?”

“Not! It was not a phase, it was only that day.”

“Well, I think Kidou has enough patience with you considering that you dedicate yourself to annoy him with real desire at all hours.”

“Sure he really likes it, he's kind of masochistic.”

"Then it might be that he still likes you, right?" 

Fudou's turquoise eyes flashed a sinister glint and Kirino, who had become quite animated again and was not at all cold after Fudou's jacket happened to thicken Kidou's, laughed out loud.

“How did you find out about Paris?” Kirino asked curiously. He didn't expect Kidou to invite him.

The brunette smiled and closed his eyes for a moment to remember how it happened.

[Flashback]   
It  _ was mid-December, a cold day with gray sky; Fudou met to have a drink with some of his friends: Kidou, Sakuma and Genda. They were to a cafe that Sakuma loved since they were teenagers for an exquisite carrot cake that was served once a week. Fudou with the cheek in his hand looked bored around him, he did not like that place too much, he never did it, too romantic. _

_ “What are your plans for this holidays?” Genda asked suddenly, causing Kidou to separate the back of his hand from Fudou's after they touched involuntary. “Jirou and I are going a few days to a cabin in the mountains, finally I have a few days off and we want to make the best of them.” _

_ "Amazing" Fudou yawned without much interest. _

_ “What will you do for Christmas, Mr. Joy?” _

_ Fudou shrugged his shoulders. _

_ “I'll have dinner at home with my mother and that's it. I will have to continue working normally so there is not much news.” _

_ “And you, Kidou?” Sakuma smiled, although the boy already knew it because Kidou already told him a few days before. _

_ “A fairly rich acquaintance of my father invited us to a party on Christmas Eve.” _

_ "I know of someone who is going to be bored to death," Genda laughed. _

_ "Maybe not, they allow us to invite a partner," Kidou replied. _

_ Fudou choked on the coke he was drinking and began to cough. _

_ “Do you know who you're going to invite, Kidou?” Sakuma smiled, looking at Fudou with the coke coming out of his nose with a certain expression of disgust. _

_ "Yes," said Kidou. _

_ Fudou, who until then was dealing with the soda, furrowed his eyebrows very angry and did not intervene in the conversation for a long time. _

_ “After that I will go to Paris with Shindou and Kirino for just over a week, they wanted to go on a trip to the city but they needed an adult to accompany them.” _

_ Fudou poured the drink like a sprinkler from his mouth, spraying Genda's face, while the glass that fell all over the table spilling the coca cola inside, slipped, the boys rushed to get up so it did not stain them the clothes between cries of protest and disgust. Genda wiped the face from which the dark drops of the drink were sliding with a homicidal expression, the brunette swallowed hard. _

_ "How clumsy you are today, Fudou," Sakuma laughed, appeasing his boyfriend and watching the other boy with amusement. The stupid Kidou thought that Fudou was no longer in love with him? How idiot could he be. _

_ They left the cafe and said goodbye, Sakuma and Genda went to their apartment holding hands and kissing each other. Kidou and Fudou went in the opposite direction, Kidou accompanied Fudou home, they were used to it. _

_ The brown boy walked with his hands in his shorts, even though it was winter cold. He said nothing but growled to himself from time to time with an expression of extreme annoyance. Kidou beside him walked calmly, apparently indifferent to his friend's condition. Arriving at the apartment building where Fudou lived with his mother, he said goodbye with a grunt and closed the door in front of Kidou's nose.  _

_ The boy fortunately reacted in time and prevented it from closing completely, but Fudou who continued without looking back did not notice.  _

_ Kidou sighed, grabbed the men's purse where he carried papers from work and pushed the door to go after Fudou. _

_ On reaching the apartment he knocked on the door, there was some noise inside and a bewildered Fudou appeared barefoot at the door looking at Kidou. _

_ “What do you want, Kidou?” _

_ The young man put his hand on the door and pushed it, widening the gap so that he could see Fudou well, who stiffened and leaned against the frame with an easy attitude. _

_ Kidou smiled slightly, put his hand to his glasses and took them off, looking directly into Fudou's eyes. _

_ He opened his mouth, he had not seen Kidou's red eyes for a long time, those eyes so beautiful that so many times they had made him lose his breath. _

_ Kidou took something out of his bag and put it on Fudou's chest with more force than he expected. _

_ “What is it, Kidou-kun?” Fudou asked mockingly to hide his nervousness, taking the envelope with surprise. _

_ But Kidou already turned around and waved goodbye, putting his glasses back on. He stood on the landing of the stairs, his heart was beating fast. _

_ Fudou shrugged and closed the door with his foot, as he walked to his room to see what the hell was in that envelope. _

_ There were several papers, a sheet written in Kidou's fine and firm writing, something that looked like a gold-colored theater ticket and that said, among other things, "Official Invitation for the Party" and a plane ticket in his name. He didn’t need to read the letter to know what it meant, his face was red and his heart was beating so hard that he thought it must be heard from miles around. _

_ He unfolded the letter with trembling hands. _

_ “You have an appointment to renew your passport the day after tomorrow at 9:30 a.m., comb your hair well for the photo or you will look like a tramp. I'll pick you up at your house an hour early. After you renew your passport we will go find a decent outfit for the party. Don't bother to be begged to go, I know you want to come to both.” _

_ Fudou smiled, leaving the papers on his table and went to shower, in a desperate attempt to lower the heat. _

_ He was going to go with Kidou to that party as his partner and then they were going to spend some wonderful days in Paris. Paris did not attract his attention as much as Italy, with that feeling of nostalgia and memories of good times that ran through his body; but they said that Paris was the City of Love, so… maybe it was time to forget the past and start again? _

_ As the water ran down his naked body Fudou thought there was nothing better than declaring to Kidou in Paris. _

-

“So, was Kidou who invite you for the trip from nowhere?” Kirino was puzzled, he believed that Fudou would have extorted the other boy in different ways until he invited him.

The brunette shrugged.

“He know me well, He knew that if he did not invite me I would be insisting to him do so and decided to save time.”

Kirino tilted his head, it could be, but…

“What are you doing out here together?” suddenly asked the voice that Kirino least expected to hear, and which made him jump onto the bench. 

"Man, if it's our friend, Shindou," Fudou snorted.

“Don't you think it's a little cold to be sitting here?” Shindou had his arms crossed and all the joy Kirino felt when seeing him became intrigue, his friend's expression was quite ugly.

"If we are together we are not cold," Fudou smiled, who could not avoid teasing Shindou in this way as he took Kirino by the shoulder and hugged him against him.

Shindou opened his mouth very annoyed, just as Fudou wanted, Shindou felt as the blood boiled in his veins. Kirino was slow to react but gave Fudou a little push to free himself.

“Fudou! Don’t say that!”

He smiled very unnaturally, showing all his teeth. It was more of a threatening grimace than a smile. He got up and looked at Shindou, who was very serious, he held his gaze.

“Fine, fine. I'll leave you alone then, maybe now you can last more than a minute by his side, can’t you?” Fudou left a kiss on Kirino's forehead that only managed to annoy the pianist more and headed towards the path that led to the house, but not before making his shoulder collide with Shindou's.

Kirino who was sitting sideways, watching everything suddenly felt very uncomfortable. He lowered the hands he had raised towards the place where the brunette kissed him and looked at Shindou.

“What were you doing here with Fudou?” asked the boy immediately in a very aggressive tone of voice.

The pink-haired boy opened his mouth. Shindou had never reacted that way. In fact, it seemed that some evil spirit possessed him.

"We were talking," he replied calmly.

"I sure you do," Shindou snorted, "and what were you talking about if it can be known?"

Kirino crossed his arms, very offended by the tone Shindou was using against him.

"Whatever we felt like, Takuto." Kirino almost spat out the last word and Shindou got even more angry.

"Oh, excuse me then for interrupting you, Ranmaru. Surely you would have preferred to continue talking with Fudou.”

"How dare you to tell me that when you were happily dancing with Okatsu?"

"Okatsu is a very nice and good person, not like you!” 

“Oh!” Kirino stood up very indignantly from the bench, he felt pretty hurt. “Well if she is so nice maybe you should have invited her as your partner!”

“Yes! I should have! It would have been much better than being with a hysterical like you!”

As soon as he saw Kirino's eyes, Shindou knew that he just screwed up more than ever. He bit his lip and tried to splutter an apology but it was late. Kirino looked at him with a coldness that he had never seen before, not even against his enemies that wanted to destroy them.

“Fine.”

The boy said nothing more, made no other expression, just started walking towards the house. Shindou stood in the middle trying to stop him but Kirino, acting as if he did not see Shindou, went straight ahead and when he reached his level Kirino simply gave him a shoulder touch to push him away as he saw Fudou do moments before.

“Kirino ... Kirino, I …”

But the pink-haired ignored the boy and walked quickly towards the house avoiding the tears that wanted to start again. Leaving Shindou standing in the middle of the garden. 

The boy buried his face in his hands, sitting on the bench that until then his friend had occupied.

"Why did you have to tell him that, Takuto?" he sobbed to himself as he couldn't help but cry.

Why? Why had he let his bad mood come out when he really felt so happy to have realized how he felt about him? Why he had insulted Kirino when he loved him so much? Tears fell bitterly on his knees.


	23. I'm an idiot to a greater level

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really sorry for not updating these past days. I want to rewrite a few chapters and it's taking me more time than expected. So the rest of the story will be updated slowly instead of one chapter a day! There're only 7 chapters more so in two weeks it'll be finished anyways.
> 
> Thanks to all the people who liked my work, if you want to coment don't be shy! You're more than welcome.

The pink-haired boy felt the agitated pulse in his temple, to the point that his ears were almost blocked. He found Kidou and Fudou talking and eating something outside the doors of the house and taking off their jackets, he threw them at the strategists, without looking at them. He made his way out of the ballroom before either of them could react, almost colliding with Tsunami who unknowingly only yelled loudly in greeting. Tatsuya and Midorikawa also met him and unlike the others, Tatsuya decided to follow him to talk while asking the green-haired man to bring him something to drink.

"Shindou is really an asshole," Fudou observed, frowning in an aggressive expression as he cracked his knuckles.

"Keep your composure, Fudou," Kidou warned, as the others who watched Kirino pass by approached them.

“What's wrong with Kirino?” Midorikawa asked worriedly approaching them.

Fudou sighed.

“Have you done something to him?” Haruna asked somewhat scared.

“Not at all! It must have been the stupid Shindou.”

"You became very close to Kirino tonight, Fudou," Kidou murmured with a hint of jealousy in his voice.

At another time, perhaps Fudou could have been angered by the situation, but not that time. His eyes widened and sparkled with unusual happiness, and a beaming smile appeared on his mouth. The others made exasperated faces, they were not there to stick the drama between the two strategists.

"What I'm hearing is jealousy, Kidou-kun?" Fudou put his hand to his ear as if he were listening carefully.

"Buy a forest and get lost," Kidou replied, putting his hand on his face and pushing him back, while he turned to go out to talk to Shindou.

“I only have eyes for you!” Fudou exclaimed with a chuckle, then seeing that he ignored him kept yelling at him. “Kidou-kun! Hey! Kidou-kun! I don't have enough money to buy a forest! Let me yours!”

Midorikawa sighed.

“In the liar's mouth the truth becomes doubtful.”

Fudou twisted his face and looked at the green-haired man, masterfully answering with another saying that the black-eyed boy seemed to like so much.

“Fuck you, Midorikawa.”

"Don't pay your frustration with me, Fudou," he shrugged, not even slightly offended.

“Don't you have to kiss Tatsuya or something?”

“Tatsuya went after Kirino, he told me to bring him something to drink, although it would be easier if I knew what he like.”

"He likes raspberry juice and mango juice," Fudou replied automatically, making everyone look at him. “What? He told me before.”

"Too bad Kidou isn't here," Kogure laughed, if Kidou had previously shown some jealousy that time his reaction would have been really funny.

"I still wonder what happened to him." Haruna put her hands to her chest and Touko patted her on the back.

"I'm sure Shindou rejected him," Kogure laughed.

Fudou's left eye twitched.

"Tatsuya will tell us," said Midorikawa, and went to find some of the juices.

Kidou went out into the garden again, looking for Shindou, he had seen him leave and soon after Kirino entered. That did not bode well. He realized that there were many more people walking in the garden. The coach found the boy sitting on the bench where they had been, in front of the fountain crowned by an angel. His face was hidden in his hands, he seemed to be crying. What a difficult night, he was regretting having agreed to go with them to Paris.

"Good evening, Shindou," said the young man, sitting next to him and putting his hand on his shoulders to comfort him. 

For a few moments the boy said nothing but then he groaned, his voice broken from crying.

“I am an idiot in greater level.”

The boy raised his hands to his hair sighing, he was not particularly good at comforting people, it was something he had always faltered about. Although one thing was certain, he was better at it than Gouenji. For a moment a flash in his eyes made him think that it wasn't such a bad idea to follow his methods, but he quickly dismissed that idea.

“It is necessary to be very idiot to be a greater level. What has happened to make my genius player think like this?”

Shindou looked up, and Kidou's eyebrow twitched involuntarily, he took a deep breath and gave himself the strength not to follow in the footsteps of his spiked-haired friend. Shindou's eyes were red and tears crossed his face.

“I told Kirino that he is hysterical and that it would have been much better to have invited Okatsu to the Party with me.”

Kidou could only think that that was being an idiot to a greater level, for a moment he was very tempted to get up and leave him alone as punishment, but that would not bring any good to anyone so he remained with a poker face. 

“The simplest solution is to ask for forgiveness.”

“What if he doesn't want to forgive me? What if he hates me for life? What if…?”

"What if I kick your ass?" Kidou growled, then froze, oh god, he was bad at that, he cleared his throat a little, at Shindou's pale complexion. “Be a man, Shindou.”

“But I have screwed up to the bottom as deep as there can be ... He sure hates me now.”

“If you don't apologize he will still hate you, do you want to live knowing that Kirino hates you because you didn't have the guts to ask for forgiveness when you had to?”

Shindou sobbed, burying his face in his hands again, Kidou felt very out of place. Before, he had been mocking Fudou for giving those bad advice to Kirino, but in those moments when he was alone with the teenager ... How difficult to give good advice. He sighed, arming himself with all the patience he could get.

“Listen, Shindou. Good friends sometimes argue, arguments are inevitable in a relationship with another person. The important thing is to be able to reconcile after that. You have to add courage to admit a mistake.”

“Have you had a strong argument with a friend?” Shindou asked looking between a hole of his fingers at Kidou.

"Eh ..." Kidou was somewhat reluctant to answer but Shindou's gaze pierced him with all its intensity. “Yes, I have. With Fudou, I've had some really ugly fights. And with …” Kidou blushed “with Kogure.”

Shindou tilted his head totally ignorant that the reason for the fight with Kogure was Haruna, since Kidou was a very jealous brother of his sister, and until Haruna threatened to stop talking to him if he did not start treating Kogure well, Kidou was really unpleasant to the boy. Kidou knew what that mocking pixie was up to ... He wanted to steal his sister!

“Fudou seems like a person who likes to fight.”

Kidou's ears grew redder at the thought of Kogure and his sister, but Shindou's voice brought him back to reality.

“He's a very troublesome boy, but he's a really good person.”

Shindou snorted and Kidou's eyebrows tightened quite irritably.

“You don't know Fudou, you shouldn't judge him.”

“He kissed Kirino before!” Shindou exclaimed, getting annoyed again.

Kidou opened his mouth, his ears turned red again and he stood up with a murderous aura from the bank.

“I kill him.”

Shindou blinked and grabbed Kidou by the jacket when he saw the man heading towards the house ready to keep his word.

“He-kissed him on the forehead …”

The young man turned to Shindou, all the murderous aura that he had projected towards his partner was now directed towards the boy who felt a chill and shrunk on the bench. What a useless alarmist.


	24. It’s now or never

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for the long long wait for the chapter. I had a break down with the last chapters, trying to order different and rewriting some scennes ;v; 
> 
> I'll post again as soon as I fix the next one. Thanks for your patiente!

Ichino was sleeping peacefully and soundly, Aoyama hugged his torso and they both drool happily dreaming of happy things full of happiness.

Ichino's cell phone started ringing and he jumped in fright as Aoyama froze in his dreams, frowning and looking for something else to hug.

Ichino took the cell phone with a trembling hand and put it to his ear without acccepting the call first. Realizing it, he let out a grunt of exasperation and sleep and accepted the call as best he could.

"Ah ..." he said only hoping not to wake Aoyama.

“Shindou is an asshole!” Kirino's voice sobbed on the other end of the line.

“Uh?” Ichino put his fingers to his eyes to clear them, worried and with a thick mouth. His brain still didn't connect well, what time was it?, what day was it?, who was Shindou?

“The very idiot left me during all the Party. And he preferred to dance with a friend rather than with me!”

Ichino swallowed, his brain had already allowed him to make the connection, and sighed deeply, oh, Shindou, why? He sat well on the bed, that was going to be long.

"Ut Irino," Ichino said without much success, he bit his lip and repeated. “But Kirino, Shindou is a boy of high class, surely he was forced to follow some protocols and …”

“Fuck the protocols! I don't want to know anything about protocols, or friends, or pianos! I want to go home!”

“Don't say that, man. Relax and dance with him a little.”

“I don't want to dance with him! I want to put his head in a toilet.”

Across the line Ichino made a disgusted sound.

“Don't do that, if you do, when you kiss him it will taste horrible.”

“What are you saying!?”

"It was a joke, it was a joke," the light-haired boy replied quickly, scratching his gut.

“Do you think I want jokes right now?”

Ichino rolled his eyes, heaven take pity on him.

"But did he say something bad to you?"

“Yes! He said I'm hysterical and it would have been better to invite that little friend of his!”

"Oh ..." Ichino scratched his head. “Had you said something to him before?”

“No! I was just talking to Fudou and …”

“Fudou !? Fudou Akio? One of the legendary Inazuma Japan?” Ichino gave a fan shout and then freaked out thinking he would wake Aoyama up.

“Yes.”

“Tell me, tell me! What is he doing at such a high-level Party?”

“He is accompanying Kidou.”

“Coach Kidou? Kidou Yuuto with Fudou Akio?” Ichino let out a long whistle, forgetting about Aoyama who turned on the bed with a groan. “Are they gay?”

“Shut up! Aoyama and you are the gays!”

"So you got the message, since you didn't answer ..." Ichino's voice seemed to carry a certain tone of reproach. “Well, as you see, Kirino, I'm not single anymore. Now you have to tell Shindou you love him and we could go on a double date.”

“I can’t! What am I going to tell him if he has condemned me to disgrace? I have dressed as a girl for him!” Kirino growled. 

"Well, well, you have condemned yourself to disgrace by accepting that amazing idea," Ichino scoffed with irony.

Kirino made a very strange noise.

“Look, if you leave like this it will all have been for nothing. Fight a little for what you believe.”

“I don't know what to believe anymore!”

Ichino snorted.

“The first thing you have to do is calm down a bit, I'm sure that what happened Shindou did not want you to be angry. You said you were with Fudou, right? Are you sure you didn't say anything indecent to Shindou?”

“No!”

“Sure?”

“Of course, I was with Fudou talking and he appeared and made Fudou leave and then he started to ask me very bordering on what we were talking about and …”

Kirino was silent because Ichino started laughing..

“It’s not funny, Ichino.”

"Oh, man," said the boy, trying not to raise his voice too high. “Can't you see he was jealous?”

Kirino opened his mouth inside the bathroom where he took refuge.   
  


* * *

  
Outside Tatsuya waited patiently. He advised Kirino to discuss the matter with a close friend, unaware of the lateness of the hour. Some of the boy's comments reached his ears, although he tried not to listen too much because it was a private conversation. So he began thinking about the work he had to do when returned to the office, Midorikawa, Midorikawa at work, Midorikawa, Midorikawa and he in one of his dates, Midorikawa, Midorikawa at home, Midorikawa, Midorikawa in the room ...

Tatsuya's expression became more enraptured for moments and he ended up completely evading reality.

When the real Midorikawa appeared with two glasses of juice for the pink-haired boy he winced and smiled at Tatsuya as he was taken out of his mental fantasies with red cheeks.  
  


* * *

Inside the bathroom Kirino was following his conversation with Ichino who was earning heaven.

“Why would Shindou be jealous?”

“I do not know, you tell me. Why were you jealous of Shindou's friend?”

“I wasn't jealous of her!” Kirino growled, well maybe a little. “I am mad at Shindou because he has ignored me all night to take care of other people.”

“Tell him, Kirino. Can't you see that Shindou is a little slow and doesn't understand hints?”

“But …”

“Kirino, you have made a tremendous effort to please Shindou, you have given everything for him. It's time for you to do something for yourself. Go talk to Shindou and if you need to, kiss him. If you don't, you will regret it. Now I'm going to hang you, remember, go talk to Shindou.”

Kirino's growl signaled that he understood and hung up with a snort. 

Ichino was fully awake then. He turned to Aoyama who was still sleeping despite all the noise the boy had made.

From the living room he could still hear voices, their mothers continue partying with their friends.

He stared at Aoyama for a while and decided to kiss his cheek.

Aoyama protested in his dreams and punched him. Ichino dropped onto the bed and rubbed his cheek, what a hot temper Aoyama had if he was teased while sleeping!

* * *

  
  
Kirino hung up and put the phone in his bag. He sighed a little and looked at himself in the mirror, he looked pitiful. Although fortunately the makeup wasn’t spoiled despite crying, it was certainly a very good makeup. He spent several long minutes staring at himself, facing himself until he took a breath with resolution.

“It's now or never, Ranmaru.”

Leaving the bathroom with a determined step he found Tatsuya and Midorikawa at the door, they turned to him.

“Are you better?” the redhead asked politely.

“Yes, thank you very much.”

The redhead shook his head.

"I brought you a couple of juices in case you wanted to drink something, Kirino," Midorikawa smiled.

The boy smiled too, he would have liked to say no but it seemed impolite, so he took one of them and drank it in one gulp.

“Thank you very much, really. You are very good to me” Midorikawa wanted to squeeze the boy as he did with Kariya, despite all his protests. “Now I want to go fix an issue.”

Kirino's eyes showed great determination and the two young men nodded.

“Luck, Kirino.”

“Remember, Kirino! Who does not risk does not win.”

The boy nodded, it was easier said than done, he left half running leaving the two young people together.


	25. And then...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize once again. I'm really having a block finishing the fic because I chose to change what I had. And I'm barely having free time since a long time.
> 
> Anyways, new chapter. There's no Kirino or Shindou here, I'm sorry. This chapter was for TatsuMido and KoguHaru. If you don't like these couples you can skip the chapter. I'll try to update soon again. There're only a few chapters more and I'd like to finish this month.
> 
> Thank you if you're still reading this story! I won't abandon it, I promise. I'm just slow as a snail ;v; If you want to comment about the story you're welcome. This always cheers me up and I'm more motivate to write.

Midorikawa and Tatsuya watched Kirino leave at a brisk pace, high held head and determinez gaze. When he was out of sight, Midorikawa sighed heavily, smiled, and took a sip of the juice Kirino had not wanted.

"I envy being young," he murmured, his gaze slightly lost in his memories.

Tatsuya upon hearing it laughed and stroked his hair.

“You sound like an old man, Ryuuji.”

The boy's black eyes widened and he watched his partner with amusement, laughing. Their eyes met, and Tatsuya felt that there was nothing more beautiful than those black eyes that looked at him with surprise, curiosity and infinite love.

“Sorry, sorry ... We are still in the prime of life.”

Tatsuya shrugged, running one of his hands behind Midorikawa's hip and catching with a kiss a lone drop of juice that had been trapped between the other boy's full lips.

“Is not all life a beautiful flower to take care of?”

Midorikawa's cheeks rose slightly in color, contrasting with the redhead's white hands that at the moment ran over his skin with the velvet softness.

“You're very poetic tonight, Tatsuya.”

“It is inevitable when I have you close, Ryuuji. You are the light of my soul.”

Midorikawa blinked in a sensual way, with a tender and sweet smile on his face, while his partner's clear eyes lost no detail of his features. 

Little by little they brought their heads together and joined in a tender kiss of pure love. Although that kiss was gaining passion and soon they were hugging each other closely as their lips joined in a frenzy in which they could hardly breathe. 

When they both started kissing like that, everything around them disappeared like wisps of steam. Only the two of them remained, an intense and precious union.

So absorted were they in their kisses that they didn't hear two joy voices approaching them from the end of the hall. Turning around a corner those two people had a perfect vision of the two young men who seemed to want to suck each other by their mouths.

“And then …”

Haruna and Kogure stopped in their walk, seeing the couple that was kissing so passionately. Their cheeks were brightly colored as they witnessed that.

“Oh!” Haruna opened her mouth excitedly and reached into her party bag with the intention of taking out her mobile to take a secret photo in which to immortalize that moment. And then she could pass it to her friends Aki, Fuyuka, Natsumi ...

Kogure instead seemed shocked, he had certainly seen them kiss each other before; but that was different. He was very ashamed to witness that scene, because he felt that they were invading an intimacy in which they had no place.

He shifted uncomfortably scratching his head, no, they shouldn't be there. He wouldn't like to be watched like that, like it was a television show.

However, neither Tatsuya nor Midorikawa paid the slightest attention to them, they were not even aware that they were being watched. 

So when the redhead's white hands began to move down the other youth's back, leaving the safe area of the body in search of new horizons, Kogure almost lost his composure while Haruna's eyes shone even brighter, she was determined to record everything!

Kogure stepped back, he couldn't witness that, they couldn't break into that scene! The blue haired boy grabbed Haruna by the wrist and with a quick gesture made her turn next to him where they had come to put distance between them and the passionate young couple.

Kogure's heart was beating too hard.

“Yuuya!”

Kogure stopped dead and released Haruna's hand, although turning to her on his face always adorned with a mischievous smile and the brightness of an always ready joke there was only seriousness and insecurity. 

Kogure thought ... thought ... Seeing his friends Midorikawa and Tatsuya kissing like that had caused anguish in him that he always kept hidden behind a facade of laughter and good humor. But it was not just those two young men, his friends Kurimatsu and Kabeyama had gotten a partner, Kogure would never have bet on the love life of his two best friends because Kurimatsu was a very nervous person and Kabeyama was too cowardly to say two sentences in a row to the girl that he liked it. But instead they had succeeded. They had both managed to declare themselves and start dating the person who made their hearts beat with heat. Kogure knew the girls and they were both very amazing persons. 

What was left to him then? Everyone faced their fear of rejection except him. His intense yellow eyes met Haruna's gray eyes, she blushed at that intensity, pulling her bag up to hide behind it, believing that perhaps the boy had bothered with her.

If his friends had managed to overcome his fears, why couldn't he? Every time he looked at Haruna everything lit up like a ray of spring sun; but then a thought would spring upon him, like a predator waiting for the right moment to strike the deadly blow at his prey. His mother abandoned him, not even his mother wanted him, how could he even think about make Haruna happy when his own nights were miserable? 

“What is it, Yuuya?”

Haruna approached him worriedly, her cheeks flushed, Haruna's hand touched Kogure's arm with uncertainty and he looked at her again. The spring breeze melted the snow of his heart once again like uncontainable tears.

“Yuuya?” Haruna's voice cracked slightly, a sharp tinge of anguish.

Kogure sobbed and grabbed hold of Haruna hugging her with shaky arms. Haruna quickly overcame in surprise and she also hugged him tenderly.

“I'm sorry, Haruna ... I'm so sorry …”

“What ...?”

The girl felt utterly lost, though her heart was beating frantically and her red-tinged cheeks burned fiercely.

Kogure parted and wiped away the tears with the sleeve of his suit jacket. He opened his mouth looking at Haruna and for the first time in a long time he was unable to say anything, not even a lie to get out of trouble. He closed his hands in frustration and looked to the side, biting his lips and lifting his shoulders.

Why could he simply not have courage? He loved Haruna, her light, her voice, her gestures, her smile, her existence ... He looked up again and found the girl with her lips parted in a silent question. Kogure swallowed hard, his heart seeming to want to escape his chest. He had to be brave, like Kurimatsu, like Kabeyama. If they had found a person who loved them as they were, why couldn't he? Why did he always have to live in the shadow of his mother's abandonment? 

Kogure stretched, showing how much he had managed to grow despite having always been a short, skinny boy. His eyes sparkled with absolute determination.

“I like you, Haruna! I like you a lot. Do-do you want ... do you want to go out with me?”

The girl's eyes widened with infinite surprise that caught her mute, but before she could answer Kogure suffered a panic attack and with a scream of agony he raised his hands to his face and ran away. She was going to kill him, she was going to kill him ... And if Haruna didn't kill him, Kidou would without any remorse.

In the escape of Kogure, he collided with Tsunami who fell to the ground in astonishment.

“Hey! What a tidal wave you are made of!”

But the blue-haired boy didn't stop and kept running as if his life depended on it, perhaps because he really thought it was.

But Haruna had no intention of harming him, why should she when she loved him so much too? At that moment she was recovering from what happened assimilating what Kogure just yelled at her. She felt a strong heat that spread through her body from her chest. Her face looked like a ripe tomato, her eyes glittered with unexpected happiness, like if that was out of her dreams. Did she wanted to date him? Of course she wanted to! How long had she been waiting for this? How long had it been since her heart flinched simply at the thought of Kogure’s big eyes? How long had it been since she began to lose hope that it would ever happen?    
  
Haruna tapped her cheeks back to reality, looked down the hallway where he had disappeared, and ran away. She had to answer that full of feelings question.


End file.
